I’ve conducted an eCommerce study based on a list of 110 major retailers in Canada (not including food retailers) that I found in a Kubas Consultant study on “Retail Market Status”.
I’ve narrowed the list down to 104 retailers because some retailers belong to the same company and/or have the same website.
The purpose of this analysis was to evaluate the options Canadian consumers have when they want to buy online.
The University of Michigan introduced the “American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)” in 1994, a methodology that measures Customer Satisfaction and Purchasing Intent which are both invaluable metrics for multi-channel retailers. The ACSI has become the leading indicator of consumer behavior, measuring the satisfaction of consumers across the U.S. economy
eCommerce is the fastest growing retail channel in North America as buying on the Internet is becoming more and more appealing to consumers. However, not all customers feel comfortable buying online compared to physically buying in traditional stores.
A study from Allurent, an eCommerce platform provider who released a Merchandising Survey in September 2006 gives us some insight into the buying habits of online customers in the US.
There are many howtos, best practices, top 10 (or more) tips and techniques, and common sense advice out there on how you should develop your online business strategy.
I personally read a lot of them myself, often just to make sure that my assumptions are correct or just to see if there is anything new I could learn from them. My perspective though is that of an analyst and a consultant; of someone who needs to gather knowledge in order to adapt it to a specific context and be creative with it.
As with statistics, best practices and insightful advice are good indicators and they bring perspective to a situation. They often show the way and warn for pitfalls. Do they however draw a clear map of what everyone could or should follow?
I’ve spent hours looking for trustworthy sources of information in order to give you the low down on online customers and their buying potential. I’ve found more behavioral information on Canadians than on US citizens but I believe that the trends are fairly similar.
I’m not stating anything new by saying that “understanding your market is key in defining your business strategy”.
Here are some figures for North American Internet Users that I borrow from eMarketer.com‘s “Online Climate Change in Canada” article:
