Frustrated shoppers don’t come back, study says

In a study of the obvious, Accenture reported that consumers who have endured a frustrating shopping experience are likely not to return the retailer.

Customer service, how private brands perform and how easily shoppable they are in stores, are all things retailers know to have in mind to maintain a loyal shopper base, so this insight likely won’t come as a surprise, but New York-based Accenture did put some numbers to it.

Accenture surveyed more than 20,000 consumers across 19 countries and found that upset shoppers are three times more likely to not buy from that retailer compared to a shopper who is considered satisfied. 

Interestingly though, Accenture did learn that overall shoppers who fell into a frustrated category were likely to pay more money for a more premium shopping experience. However, when looking at this by region, the numbers are widespread. For example, 81% of shoppers in China said they would pay more while only 31% of U.S. shoppers would pay more and 28% of U.K. shoppers.

The study identified frustration as happening while browsing or purchasing from a store. Of course, how a retailer responds to an unhappy customer is part of the battle in an effort to preserve loyalty. 

Jill Standish, senior managing director and head of Accenture’s retail practice took the study and looked at how retailers can improve the overall experience. She said retailers can replace traditional points-based programs with responsible, mobile-enabled customer-focused concepts.

“Retailers and consumer goods brands can strike a new kind of value bargain with these customers,” she said. “A hyper-convenient personalized digital experience in return for new insights into consumer preferences and behavior. If they can translate this level of data and analytics sophistication into a human-centric form the whole workforce can get behind, they can orient their entire businesses around the customers with the greatest lifetime potential.”