3 Areas of the Online Shopping Experience That Vary Around the World

Analyzing on-site consumer behaviors is always a strong jumping off point for e-commerce brands looking to better understand shopper behaviors and preferences. And there are plenty of tools available that can help these online brands get at a lot of important information on how their customers navigate through their websites. The resulting data can provide insight into a number of different areas that impact online sales, such as the number of visitors who abandon their shopping carts, the number of emails sent to customer service in a given time period, the number of shoppers that selected express shipping over free shipping, among others.

These types of metrics are important for setting a baseline to measure against in future weeks or months. However, this information is only half the story. Performance data only shows what customers are currently doing on a website, but not what they actually expect from their online shopping experiences. This information doesn’t uncover their actual preferences. While this information is already difficult to find in one market, it becomes even more cumbersome in multiple markets.

In a new comprehensive, multimarket research study across 11 global markets (Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea, U.K., USA), consumers shared their expectations and preferences for the shopping experience. The goal of the study was to tease out trends in each market and understand how online brands and retailers could offer even better user experiences for shoppers in different markets. The report showed several differences across markets when analyzing customer expectations for their on-site experience, customer service support, and logistics management.

Flow’s latest report, Global Consumer Insights, examines several aspects impacting the on-site shopping experience, including factors like shopping cart abandonment. The report also dives into preferred customer service options by countries, as well as preferred delivery windows and shipping costs in each of the 11 markets. Below are three aspects of the report that can help retailers better understand their global customers and improve their websites to better meet their expectations and address their needs.

Why do shoppers abandon their shopping carts online?

The Global Consumer Insights report showed that 81 percent of the respondents surveyed in the 11 countries admitted to abandoning their online shopping cart at some point. Interestingly, shoppers in India, China, and Germany had the lowest rates of cart abandonment, while Canadian and Japanese shoppers had the highest rate. It won’t come as a surprise that the data revealed various reasons for why shoppers would abandon their carts online. High shipping costs appeared at the top of the list, with almost half of the respondents in all 11 markets citing this as a primary reason for shopping cart abandonment. There were also other reasons related to shipping as well, such as not qualifying for free shipping and shipping costs being displayed too late in the checkout process. Other concerns were raised such as not having a preferred payment method available at checkout.

What types of customer service communication do shoppers expect to see?

The Flow report took a look at how customers in different markets view customer service and, more importantly, how they like to interact with customer service representatives. The results showed that in general, online shoppers in every market prefer to have multiple customer service options available, including email, live chat/messenger, toll-free telephone numbers, and even a local phone number. Chinese and South Korean shoppers showed a strong preference for live chat and messenger service for communicating with brands. Two European markets (France and Germany) showed a strong preference for email communication. Interestingly, the majority of Indian shoppers expect a toll-free telephone number to be available for them to speak with brands.

What types of shipping options and delivery times do shoppers expect?

Knowing that shipping costs are important to online consumers, Flow asked which specific shipping options consumers expected to see available to them when shopping online. Unsurprisingly, a majority of shoppers across all markets expect free shipping to be available. However, the countries with the highest expectation for free shipping include Japan, Brazil, USA, and Canada. More than a third of all respondents said they expected there to be an option for two-day shipping available. When asked about their expectations for delivery windows on free shipping, the responses varied across the board. Respondents in certain markets expected free shipping within two business days, while in other markets shoppers expected free shipping deliveries to arrive in five days or more.

The areas examined here are but a few that can have an impact on the on-site experience of consumers and result in lower conversion rates. The results contained in this report reveal important insights for cross-border e-commerce brands. Consumers have varying expectations for their customer journey in different markets, and it's critical for online retailers and brands to plan accordingly so that the on-site experience they present will meet or exceed those expectations. Some of the customizations that businesses must consider when expanding into new markets include expectations on free shipping, willingness to pay for returns, and preferences for displaying out-of-stock or pre-order items. For details on these results and more insights, download the Global Consumer Insights: Shopping Expectations for the E-Commerce Experience e-book.

Juliana Pereira is vice president of marketing at Flow Commerce, an e-commerce solution for cross-border retailing.