According to the AppQuality research on the online shopping experience on luxury brand and retail sites

  • Zara, Massimo Dutti, Mango or Desigual offer experiences similar to Versace, Gucci or Prada, according to users
  • The personal shopper is discovered as a useful ally in the offer of an omnichannel experience

Clothing brands are increasingly betting on offering a complete digital experience to users. The boom in online shopping is an opportunity that cannot be missed to attract and retain an increasingly digitized, demanding and fickle customer. However, and as can be seen from the analysis “The state of digitization in the Retail world“, presented by AppQuality, a startup selected by Covisian Group within its “Make No Little Plans: Accelerating Innovation” program, the main brands Spanish fashion designers offer a consistent and competitive user experience.

AppQuality -digital testing platform that helps companies create effective and user-centered digital solutions-, has carried out a study that has taken into account variables such as the number of clicks to make the purchase, satisfaction, usability, informative capacity and the reliability of the websites of retailers in Spain and Italy. The investigation has evaluated a total of 20 brands, 10 Italian, from the luxury sector, and 10 Spanish, from brands of the retail model. The testers were users of the platform’s community, which totals 250,000 worldwide. The testers have rated the experience on a scale from 1 to 7, with 1 being the lowest score and 7 the highest.

In the Spanish market, the user experience of the Desigual, Pedro del Hierro, Mango, Stradivarius, Zara, Bershka, Pull & Bear, Oysho, Bimba y Lola and Massimo Dutti brands has been analyzed. In Italy, D&G, MaxMara, Prada, Elisabetta Franchi, Salvatore Ferragano, AEFFE, Gucci, Versace, Valentino and Armani have been analyzed. Thus, in relation to the clicks that separate a user from completing a purchase on each of the sites since the product is in the virtual cart, Massimo Dutti, Oysho and Bimba and Lola are those that require the most clicks, with 28 and 23 clicks, respectively. The least are Desigual, Mango, Pedro del Hierro and Stradivarius, with 15, 18 and 19 clicks. The analysis warns that clicks must be understood as a combination of objective and subjective experience and that, therefore, the number is not an indicator of the quality of the experience.

“The number of clicks required to complete the task is key: increasing the number of clicks reduces the perceived ease of use,” said Benedetto Lamacchia, Customer Experience Consultant at AppQuality.

Italian luxury companies required 18.8 clicks on average, slightly less than the 20.8 clicks required by Spanish retailers. Regarding satisfaction, usability, information and reliability, both countries registered similar data, with an average of 5.4, 5.7 and 5.8, respectively.

Zara, Bimba y Lola and Massimo Dutti were the worst evaluated brands in terms of satisfaction by Spanish and Italian users, with an average of 5, a mark that represents a high pass, with 7 being the highest score.

Nor have there been discordant values ​​between retailers and luxury brands in relation to the ease of executing the purchase on the websites. With 5 being the highest score in relation to this metric and 0 being the lowest, all brands have received a score between 4 and 5, with the exception of Massimo Dutti, which has obtained a 3.8. The same has happened when asking testers if they would recommend the e-commerce site to third parties, albeit with a small caveat. Spanish users have rated the Italian sites 3.4 on average, the lowest score. Italian users recommend Spanish retail sites with an average of 4 and also rate the shopping experience in luxury brands with a 4.

“We have found that the user shopping experience is just as satisfactory on Italian luxury brand and Spanish retail sites. The reading of this data is that the Internet has democratized technological tools to help offer the best customer journey and that it is time to take advantage of them and integrate them to achieve the maximum benefits for our businesses”, said César López, CEO of GSS Grupo Covisian for Spain and Latam.

“It is key to know the customers and guide them to the channels that offer them the best strategy. Defining the business KPIs for each channel is essential. We must also empower remote and face-to-face agents: the fundamental thing is not to close the process but to ensure that the experience is completely closed”, highlighted Miguel Ángel Neira, commercial director of GSS Grupo Covisian Spain.

Personal digital shopper, a gold mine that must be professionalized

As e-commerce is increasing its volume, a sector that closed 2020 with a turnover of 51.6 billion euros in Spain, 5.8% more than in 2019, is flourishing and maturing figures such as the digital personal shopper.

The tool, which is part of the omnichannel efforts being carried out by brands, is used to integrate the experiences of the online and offline world, and helps guide users in the shopping experience and personalize it. With a structured and fluid experience, greater loyalty is achieved, an increase in the client base by recommendation and a smoother customer journey.

In general, users have valued the figure of the personal shopper as useful and have considered that it has facilitated their purchase, highlighting the possibility of dealing with a real person and, in some cases, talking on WhatsApp.

“Users consider the figure of the personal shopper very useful. Here we see a triumph of WhatsApp; users prefer to use tools they already know. Doing so increases trust in websites”, declared Benedetto Lamacchia for his part.

As can be seen from the analysis “Personal Shopper, the new ally of the online retailer“, an analysis parallel to the one already mentioned, brands must focus on a series of aspects such as transparency when showing the experience that they are going to offer, the use of competitive technology, capable of obtaining user browsing information and offering a personalized experience (for example, when using one or another language through the chatbot) without being invasive, proactive in the consulting service , reduced waiting times and a follow-up post advice.

“The personal shopper is a figure that has proven to be useful in the user’s shopping experience. Offering an omnichannel experience is no longer an option to become an obligation for brands, which, when properly integrated, can help convert users to buyers and, ultimately, help scale sales”, said López.

“A personal shopper helps to reduce shopping time, it will increase the closing rate of the purchase and it can also be improved with one element: video shopping. The use of chat and the switch to video calling that we have become accustomed to in recent months helps to personalize the experience more”, Miguel Ángel Neira has revealed.