Survey of 4,000 consumers reveals that finding
products and content easily has the strongest impact on the
perception of a brand for more than 60% of respondents
MONTREAL, LONDON and SAN
FRANCISCO, June 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -
Coveo (TSX: CVO), the leading enterprise AI platform that
brings AI Search and generative AI (GenAI) to every
point-of-experience, enabling remarkable personalized digital
experiences that drive business outcomes, today announced the
release of its fourth annual Coveo Commerce Industry Report, based
on a survey of 4,000 shoppers, equally divided between the U.S. and
the U.K. The report, "With Overwhelming Choice, What Really Drives
Shopper Purchase Decisions?," conducted in partnership with
Arlington Research, examines shopper preferences, expectations, and
frustrations at a transformative time in the retail industry.
The study shows the increasingly important role that GenAI
is playing in guiding purchase decisions, with 72% of consumers
expecting their online shopping experiences to evolve with GenAI.
These expectations include pre-purchase education on products and
attributes and even virtual shopping assistance. Meanwhile, shopper
willingness to exchange personal data for deals is on the rise,
along with their concerns over its use. The growing influence of
social commerce is also a notable trend, particularly for Gen Z
shoppers who often discover products on social media platforms,
though only 14% said they hit the "buy" button on that channel. All
this reveals how ingrained digital interactions have become within
the retail customer journey -- in fact, Coveo's survey confirms
that 94% prefer to either start or end their shopping experiences
online.
"With consumers spending pivotal moments of their shopping
journeys online, brands must deliver brick-and-mortar and digital
retail experiences that complement each other," said Lisa Grayston, General Manager of Commerce at
Coveo. "What's more, 9 in 10 consumers are now expecting their
online shopping experience to match or exceed the satisfaction of
in-store experiences. With the advent of generative AI, online
shopping can transcend mere transactions and become conversational
and advisory. It's crucial for retailers to adapt to this shift
before they lose ground to their competitors."
Findings in the latest installment of Coveo's 2024 Commerce
Industry Report include:
- GenAI has shifted shopper expectations, particularly
pre-purchase decision-making: 72% expect their online shopping
experiences to evolve with GenAI while 37% expect pre-purchase
education on products and attributes, and 31% expect a virtual
assistant to help guide them on product selection.
- High expectations persist for online shopping: 91% expect their
online shopping satisfaction to match or surpass in-store
experiences, yet 49% of shoppers state they still encounter
problems online.
- Social media piques consumer interest but retail websites are a
critical means of conversion: Around two-fifths (39%) stated that
they often/always come across products that catch their interest
when browsing social media platforms, a figure that increases to
over half (55%) for Gen Z. However, only 14% of shoppers said they
complete their purchase through that same channel.
- Product discovery impacts brand perception: More than
two-fifths (44%) said finding what they are looking for in just a
few clicks would have the strongest impact on their perception of a
brand. A further 18% of respondents said that their perception of a
brand would be most positively impacted by ease of finding
supporting content (manuals, instructions), indicating the
significance of delivering robust customer experiences and
discovery to more than 60% of consumers overall.
- Willingness to share personal data for deals is on the rise,
but so are concerns over data usage: 54% said that they will share
information about themselves if it improves their experience; 65%
said they will do so for brands they trust, and/or if they get
better deals and offers as a result (compared to 41% and 48%, for
the same question in Coveo's 2023 report). That said, there has
also been some uptick in the figure relaying shopper concern over
how their data is used by online retailers — rising from 64% in
2023 to 71% in 2024.
- Post-purchase experience remains a big challenge: 68% have
experienced an issue with either customer service, checkout, or
post-transaction experiences when interacting with a business,
which included navigation and search issues which prevented them
from resolving problems or their questions. Millennials (71%) and
Gen Z (75%) respondents were more likely to cite either purchase,
customer service or post-transaction issues.
To download the full report, please visit the Coveo website.
About Coveo
We strongly believe that the future is
business-to-person. That experiences are today's competitive front
line, a make or break for every business. We also believe that
remarkable experiences not only enhance user satisfaction but also
yield significant gains for enterprises. That is what we call the
AI-experience advantage – the degree to which the content,
products, recommendations, and advice presented to a person online
aligns easily with their needs, intent, preferences, context, and
behavior, resulting in superior business outcomes.
To realize this AI-experience advantage at scale, enterprises
require a robust, spinal and composable infrastructure capable of
unifying content securely and delivering AI search, AI
recommendations, true personalization, and a trusted generative
experience at every touchpoint with each individual customer,
partner and employee.
Coveo is dedicated to bringing this advantage to every
point-of-experience, using powerful data and AI models to transform
the enterprise in commerce, customer service, website and
workplace.
The Coveo platform is ISO 27001 and ISO 27018 certified, SOC2
compliant, HIPAA compatible, with a 99.999% SLA available. We are a
Salesforce ISV Partner, an SAP ®Endorsed App, an
Adobe Gold Partner, MACH Alliance member and a Genesys AppFoundry
ISV Partner.
Coveo is a trademark of Coveo Solutions Inc.
Forward-Looking
Information
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"forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable
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Forward-looking information is necessarily based on a number of
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the forward-looking information contained herein is based upon what
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the forward-looking information contained herein. Certain
assumptions made in preparing the forward-looking information
contained in herein include, without limitation: our ability to
capitalize on growth opportunities and implement our growth
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and internationally; the success of our efforts to expand our
product portfolio and market reach; our ability to maintain
successful strategic relationships with partners and other third
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under our revolving credit facility; the accuracy of our estimates
of market opportunity and growth forecasts; our success in
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to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many
of which are beyond our control, that may cause the actual results,
level of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially
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uncertainties and the risk factors described under "Risk Factors"
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no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be
accurate, as actual results and future events could differ
materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly,
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forward-looking information, which speaks only as of the date
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whether as a result of new information, future events, or
otherwise, after the date on which the statements are made or to
reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
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SOURCE Coveo Solutions Inc.