Case Study - Open Web Research

eVŌC Insights conducted Open Web Research for a major apparel and home furnishings retailer and determined that only 13% of shoppers start at a search engine when shopping for apparel online. While the majority of shoppers start at a specific retail Website with which they have prior familiarity. Shoppers made it clear that online, price is not just the cost of the item, but rather the total cost of the purchase, including shipping and tax.

Background

In order to understand the competitive landscape and motivations of its consumers, this US retailer worked with eVŌC to conduct an Open Web Research study to understand consumers� online shopping behavior. Specifically, the retailer wanted to determine why they were losing online market share to a key competitor.

Objective

In an effort to regain market share lost to a key online competitor, the US retailer wanted to understand how its target consumers shop of products online including competitive sites. The key goals of this research:

Understand how people shop for apparel and home furnishings online
Profile the top sites people visit, how they got there and their shopping patterns
Assess the strengths and weaknesses of competitive websites
Determine what is driving increases in key competitor online market share
Identify functionality and content desired by site visitors

Solution

In order to accomplish these objectives, eVŌC Insights conducted an Open Web Research study. A panel of target consumers was used to solicit responses from shoppers who shopped at the retailer, their key competitor, or both. These shoppers were then asked to look for products they typically shop for online beginning at a blank Web page. As the users shopped, their behavior was tracked and they were asked questions about their likes, dislikes and frustrations on each site they visited, as well as their motivation for navigating to another site as they moved between sites. This helped the retailed understand the consumer thought process as they navigated the Web.

Insights

Only 13% of shoppers start at a search engine when shopping for apparel online
Only 48% were satisfied with the US retailer while 60% were satisfied with the leading competitor
eVŌC helped US retailer identify key areas of differentiation, specifically price and inventory
52% found US retailer trustworthy compared to only 37% for competitor

ROI

eVŌC Insights determined that only 13% of shoppers start at a search engine when shopping for apparel online. While the majority of shoppers start at a specific retail Website with which they have prior familiarity. Shoppers made it clear that online, price is not just the cost of the item, but rather the total cost of the purchase, including shipping and tax. Only 48% of shoppers were satisfied with the US retailer site compared to 60% who were satisfied with the competitor site. Given its brand and reputation among shoppers, eVŌC was able to use the findings to identify opportunities for the US retailer to better message price savings to consumers, highlight aspects of the brand more prominently and clarify the total cost of purchase to better address user needs leading to increased conversion and total transaction size.

Open Web Research
Shopping Statistics

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