Retailers’ in-store customer experience (CX) is better than online, according to RetailEXPO research, with one exception; Amazon.

The industry event’s organising company surveyed over 2,000 UK consumers, revealing that Tesco delivered the best in-store experience (according to 23 per cent of respondents), followed by Sainsbury’s (18 per cent) and Asda (17 per cent).

The top five retailers delivering the best in-store CX was dominated by grocers, with the average in-store satisfaction score of 15 per cent, while the average in-store satisfaction score for department stores dropped to seven per cent on average, but even that was better than for in-store fashion, scoring just three per cent on average.

Matt Bradley, event director for RetailEXPO, explained that from a technology perspective, supermarkets have all explored ways to reduce friction at the checkout, which is consistently a top pain point for shoppers, using either self-service, mobile app payment, or other methods to speed up transactions and give consumers purchasing control.

“From a store format perspective, grocers, such as Sainsbury’s, have looked at mixed-use formats, by introducing fashion, beauty and wellness concepts to become quasi-department stores, in order to deliver convenience,” he continued, adding “More widely, retailers are looking to redefine the in-store environment to include experiences as well as product in order to engage shoppers who want blended retail and leisure.”

Almost three quarters (73 per cent) of shoppers said they would spend more time and money in-stores that offer up a blend of product and experiences, while 70 per cent said they would shop elsewhere if a retailer didn’t provide an exciting or engaging shopping environment.

When it came to online customer experience, Amazon topped the poll by a significant margin - 28 per cent of UK shoppers rated the online giant as having the best digital CX - 19 per cent higher than second place Argos (nine per cent) and third equal John Lewis and Marks & Spencer (six per cent).

Increasingly consumers are putting the shopping encounters offered by Amazon as the benchmark, with 37 per cent of UK shoppers saying they want retailers’ websites to have the same capabilities as the e-commerce giant – with frictionless one-click payments a priority for 23 per cent. A further third of those surveyed expressed frustrations with the length of time retailers’ websites took to load.

“Digital transformation, store restructuring and resizing, the move to service-led, experiential retailing and the need to innovate, illustrates a complex path ahead for the retail industry,” Bradley stated. “Looking ahead, successful retail businesses will be ones that combine online and their physical retailing estates in the most organic ways.”

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