This is apparently all it takes for shoppers to ditch an online retailer for good

Retail app
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Every e-commerce site has three strikes before being abandoned by the majority of consumers - for good, new research has claimed.

Salesforce's latest “Connected shopper” report, surveyed 1,600 global shoppers and more than 1,000 retail executives, finding that four in five (80%) shoppers would abandon a retailer after three bad experiences. What’s more, with the pandemic pushing more and more consumers into the digital realm - there is virtually no room for error. 

To make sure they provide the best possible customer experience (CX), many organizations will use numerous systems. In fact, the average retailer will use 44 different systems to manage CX, ending up counter-productive and making it difficult to deliver unified shopping experiences. Consequently, they struggle with personalization: less than a third (32%) of retail executive respondents said their company is able to transform data into personalized prices, offers, and products - in real-time. 

Building personal connections

At the same time, two-thirds (66%) of customers expect companies to understand their needs and desires, while of all the different age groups, Millennials and Gen Zs value exclusive access and unique experiences two times more, compared to Silents and Baby Boomers. 

To make matters even more challenging - consumers are coming into the digital realm, in droves. Compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019, this year there was a 40% surge in the share of transactions across brand websites and apps, retailer website and apps, as well as online marketplaces. 

Emerging channels, such as delivery apps, social media, or messaging platforms, have also grown into “serious e-commerce players,” as their share of transactions rose by more than 20% in the same timeframe.

At the same time, transactions through brick-and-mortar stores shrunk by 27% although, the report states, the store still “plays a critical role” in the overall shopping journey.

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Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he’s written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He’s also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications.