DALLAS, TX--(Marketwired - Sep 26, 2016) - SHOP.ORG CONFERENCE -- ForeSee has released details of its August 2016 Retail Benchmark, a yardstick that retailers can use to determine whether the experience they are providing is exceeding or falling short of industry averages and customer expectations. The company releases annual, monthly, and seasonal benchmarks to its clients.
ForeSee works with hundreds of retailers in every sub-category of retail, including 70 percent of the Internet Retailer 100. ForeSee's retail benchmarks (including ForeSee clients and the top retailers measured in its annual ForeSee Experience Index) include companies like Amazon.com, Apple, Argos, Best Buy, Costco, CVS, Dell, Disney Store, Drugstore.com. Etsy, Express, Gap, Netflix, Neiman Marcus, Nike, Nordstrom, REI, Sears, Target, Victoria's Secret, Walgreens, and Walmart.
"Benchmarks are incredibly important to us," said Rob Schmults, Senior Vice President of E-Commerce and CRM at Talbots. "After all, we know how we stack up to competitors in terms of sales and market share. Since CX is a proven predictor of loyalty, revenue, and stock price, we need to know how we stack up in terms of experience as well. ForeSee benchmarks are one of many useful services provided by ForeSee to help us assess our success."
ForeSee retail customer experience benchmarks are unparalleled in the industry. Of its more than 600 benchmark categories, more than 70 are specific to retail and cover virtually every category that would be useful to a retailer, including:
- By channel: web, mobile (including tablet and apps), store, and contact center
- By sub-category: ForeSee clients can compare themselves not only against other retailers in general, but also retailers in their specific category (see chart below) Cosmetics retailers (with an average CX score of 82) and food and beverage retailers (80) tend to get higher CX scores than do discount centers (67), home and hardware retailers (63), and mobile phone retailers (54)
- By type of retailer: Internet pure plays tend to have higher CX scores (average of 79) than retailers with brick-and-mortar operations (71) or manufacturer direct retailers (64)
- Along the customer journey: ForeSee clients can measure and compare their scores to top and bottom performers at each customer interaction point across the customer journey.
The most popular retail benchmark is the one that shows average web CX scores by category. After all, if a shoe retailer has a CX score of 70, they are performing well below industry averages (79), risking sales, market share, and loyalty to competitors. However, if a discount store has the same score, 70, they are performing well above the industry average of 67.
"Benchmarks help retailers identify problems that might not have otherwise jumped out," said Dan Chester, ForeSee's Retail Practice Leader. "Once a retailer knows where it is underperforming, it can use survey results, verbatims, session replays, and usability analysis to identify improvements and move up in the benchmark."
| Retail Desktop Benchmarks by Product Categories | CX Score | |
| Average Web Satisfaction Across Retail | 72 | |
| Cosmetics | 82 | |
| Food and Beverage | 80 | |
| Shoes | 79 | |
| Accessories | 76 | |
| Health & Personal Care | 76 | |
| Sporting, Outdoor and Fitness | 76 | |
| Apparel - Women's | 75 | |
| Gifts | 75 | |
| Home Appliances/Housewares | 75 | |
| Apparel | 74 | |
| Specialty Retailers | 72 | |
| Home Furnishings | 71 | |
| Big Box Retailers | 70 | |
| Mass Merchants | 70 | |
| High SKU Count Stores | 70 | |
| Department Stores | 70 | |
| Mass Merchants - Brick and Mortar | 69 | |
| Discount Stores | 67 | |
| Hardware & Home Centers | 63 | |
| Mobile Phones & Accessories | 54 |
"Winning retailers understand that the customer experience is the front line in today's battle for business growth, and they use ForeSee to tell them where CX improvements will have the biggest impact," said Lenny Nash, Chief Strategy Officer at ForeSee. "Our clients know the positive business impact of moving from conducting general, haphazard customer surveys to using ForeSee for a scientific and actionable measure of the omnichannel experience."
For more information, download the complete ForeSee Retail Benchmarks Report.
About ForeSee
ForeSee helps organizations keep their customers happy and loyal. ForeSee® CX Suite allows companies to manage all of their customer experience needs from one place, capture the entire customer journey, and prioritize their most critical CX issues. Clients include more than 2,000 companies worldwide -- in retail, government, financial services, and other industries -- that have transformed their VOC programs into a strategic business discipline that delivers economic impact. Founded in 2001, ForeSee is headquartered in Ann Arbor, MI and has offices in New York, San Francisco, Mountain View, St. Louis, Cleveland, Vancouver, and London. For more information, visit www.foresee.com.