Albertsons, Walmart named among retail industry leaders in online experience

Albertsons Cos. and Walmart were listed among overall leaders for online retail experience in the 2023 Omnichannel Customer Service Index from digital retail and brand researcher Incisiv.

This year’s Omnichannel Customer Service Index from Jacksonville, Florida-based Incisiv, released Tuesday, benchmarked 123 retailers across nine retail sectors in 150 digital capabilities. Companies were evaluated in three main areas: customer engagement and service (speed and effectiveness of customer service interactions, covering 105 attributes), purchase (ease of placing and receiving orders, covering 21 attributes) and discovery (availability of information and assistance at every step, covering 24 attributes).

Attributes are categorized as “table-stakes” or “differentiating capabilities” based on their quantified impact on key digital performance metrics, such as average order value, conversion and customer satisfaction, Incisiv said.

Source: Incisiv 2023 Omnichannel Customer Service Index

Albertsons and Walmart were recognized as two of 20 leaders across the retail spectrum in omnichannel customer experience in the 2023 index. Other chains included such popular retailers as American Eagle Outfitters, Ashley Homestore, Bed Bath & Beyond, Belk, Best Buy, Coach, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Ikea, Macy’s, Nieman Marcus, Office Depot, Party City, Ralph Lauren, REI, Sephora, Sherwin Williams, The Home Depot and Zales.

Retail segments examined in Incisiv’s study, done in partnership with Microsoft and Nuance Communications, included apparel and accessories, consumer electronics, department stores, general merchandise, grocery, health and beauty, home improvement, specialty stores and sporting goods. Companies included 22 retailers in the food, drug, mass and convenience retail channel.

“Leaders offer the richest customer-service maturity within and across retail segments. They lead in the adoption of differentiated experiences and are functionally mature across most assessment areas,” Incisiv said in the Omnichannel Customer Service Index report. “They are the benchmark for omnichannel customer service experience in 2023.”

Walmart was the only retailer from the food, drug, mass and convenience space to make the list of 22 retail leaders in discovery, even though general merchandise stores were among the lowest adopters in attributes like product demo videos (10%) and pre-populated menu items in chat (17%). However, Incisiv pointed out that Walmart has highly trained, knowledgeable chat agents who can provide detailed product information.

Source: Incisiv 2023 Omnichannel Customer Service Index

“Digital customer service begins as soon as shoppers enter the digital channel, such as proactively offering help on issues while searching for products, product details or fulfillment options,” Incisiv explained. “A subpar discovery experience adds friction right at the beginning of the customer journey.”

Mass and supermarket retailers had a strong presence in the area of purchase, accounting for five of the 17 retail leaders: Albertsons, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Target, Walmart and Whole Foods Market. Incisiv noted that grocery retailers lead in fulfillment capabilities. For example, 55% of grocery retailers studied offer two-hour store pickup (versus 27% across retail), 82% provide same-day delivery (40% across retail) and 82% enable order cancellation before shipment (59% across retail).

“With conversion still in the low single digits and cart abandonment rates greater than 80%, converting the intent to purchase into an actual purchase is one of the biggest challenges for retailers,” the index report said. Target, for instance, recommends product substitutes and enables shoppers to select the product they want to buy.

“Grocery retailers offer the most advanced fulfillment capabilities, such as two-hour pickup, same-day delivery, order customization and cancellation prior to shipment,” Incisiv observed.

Source: Incisiv 2023 Omnichannel Customer Service Index

The Kroger Co. was the only grocer among 20 retailers recognized as customer engagement and service leaders in the index. Areas of high growth in the customer experience factor among index retailers included the ability to manage notification preferences, virtual assistant integration, and chat or call agents referring to logged-in customers by name. Low-growth areas center on returns and support, including providing feedback for store visits, booking appointments for assisted shopping and initiating returns online.

“Eighty-five percent of shoppers would like to provide feedback to a retailer post a bad experience,” according to Incisiv. “This feedback is critical for a retailer to understand and resolve the challenges at the right time. If retailers do not seek feedback themselves, this feedback makes it to public forums, impacting brand reputation. Currently, 58% of retailer sites allow shoppers to provide instant feedback.”

Other retailers in the food, drug, mass and convenience channel assessed in the 2023 Omnichannel Customer Service Index included Costco Wholesale, Dollar General, Dollar Tree/Family Dollar, Meijer, 7-Eleven, Food Lion, H-E-B, Hy-Vee, Publix, ShopRite, Wegmans, WinCo Foods, CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid.

“Retail is a highly competitive industry, and impeccable customer service is a ‘must have’ to stay ahead of the curve,” Gaurav Pant, chief insights officer at Incisiv, said in a statement. “Our benchmark report shows that there is a significant opportunity for retailers to improve customer service capabilities and ultimately drive customer retention. Retailers who offer the right balance of efficient self-service options and empathetic human touch will win the customer retention battle. We conducted this study to help brands understand how they compare to their peers, as well as to help identify high-impact improvement opportunities for digital transformation.”

Source: Incisiv 2023 Omnichannel Customer Service Index

Other key findings in Incisiv’s study included the following:

• 75% of customers consider hospitality as the benchmark for customer service.

• One in three shoppers would switch to a new brand after one bad experience.

• Retailers providing options for product customization and personalization have up to 30% higher conversion on digital.

• 47% of shoppers switch to another brand after an ineffective product search.

• 59% of customers prefer brands that offer real-time order tracking.

• 47% of retailers offer shoppers the option for preferred substitutes.

• 80% of shoppers are likely to expedite a product purchase if the brand highlights low inventory status.

“Consumers today are expecting retailers to understand their needs, and those that can deliver a knowledgeable, personalized, convenient and engaging experience will realize enormous benefits,” stated Tony Lorentzen, general manager and senior vice president of intelligent engagement at Nuance. “We see AI [artificial intelligence] as central to a retailer’s ability to deliver predictive, customized and relevant experiences at scale—whether that’s through chatbots and digital platforms, phone conversations or in-store. Not only can the right technology automate certain engagements to streamline getting customers what they need, it can also be critical in determining which customer interactions should take place via an automated agent in the first place, and which are best to be handled by a human.”