Practicology: omnichannel benchmarking research for Google to identify customer experience

Global digital consultancy Practicology – a Pattern company has delivered a second piece of omnichannel benchmarking research for Google to identify customer experience best practice among Europe’s retailers.

The benchmarking research was conducted during 2019, to evaluate the omnichannel customer experience delivered by 223 retailers across 10 countries: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The project follows on from a similar piece of research which Google and Practicology co-published in 2018, when 145 retailers across five European countries were examined.

The omnichannel benchmarking research used a scoring methodology jointly developed by Practicology and Google. As part of the customer experience assessment, each retailer’s mobile website was assessed on its usability, and store visits took place in each country. Practicology also signed up to receive email marketing from each retailer, and assessed their email, phone and Live Chat customer service channels.

Retailers were grouped into four categories by score: Leaders, Followers, Majority and Latecomers. Less than 20% of retailers were scored as Leaders; with the majority of Leaders being based in the UK, France and Netherlands. Spain and Norway have the most Latecomers.

Findings from the research have now been shared with retailers individually, and at Google events in London and Amsterdam. Conclusions have also been published on the Think With Google blog.

Leaders delivering great customer experience

The findings of the omnichannel benchmarking research identify five things that the Leaders do which mark them out as delivering great customer experience:

• Allow customers to easily move between channels and devices during their shopper journey;
• Use in-store technology to integrate online and offline experiences;
• Promote their online proposition in store, and make it easy for customers to collect online orders;
• Encourage customers to visit stores, and promote in-store events, on their websites;
• Set expectations about how quickly customers can receive or collect orders and offer next-day delivery options.

Nicola Hollow, General Manager Europe at Practicologty, commented on the research: “We are delighted to have partnered with Google again on this omnichannel benchmarking research. The project is a huge undertaking, but we believe that it is crucial to help retailers’ and brands’ management teams understand the interdependence of their online and offline operations from the point of view of their customers.”