3 Statistics To Help Your Retail Business Prepare for the Rest of The Year

In 2021 the UK’s sales in the retail industry hit £465.25 billion, an increase of £28.5 million from the previous year. We know all too well of the challenging times on the high street, and the ever increasing competition in the world of ecommerce, so here are three statistics to help you prepare your online retail business:

1. 48% of shoppers abandoned their cart and purchased from a competitor after a poorly personalised experience.

Website personalisation is an emerging B2B ecommerce trend, however, in the world of B2C this has long been ‘a must have’. According to data from Forbes, 80% of consumers are more likely to purchase from brands offering personalised experiences and are willing to pay up to a 16% price premium for it.

Additionally, an estimated 87% of shoppers will abandon a cart if a checkout process is too complicated. Having a less complicated address form in your website, that quickly populates, will help reduce cart abandonment as well as increasing conversion.

2. Only 17% of customers would trust a company who had misused personal data.

Consumer concerns are growing over data governance. The Customer State of Mind survey expresses that 60% of consumers are uneasy at the prospect of companies using their personal data for analytics. Already this year we’ve witnessed two major breaches of the GDPR from both British Airways and Marriott International. These two companies are facing a combined penalty of £282 million.

Taking extra precautions to protect and keep your customer data accurate will help avoid disasters such as misdeliveries and unsolicited marketing. This contributes to consumer trust and customer retention. Furthermore, 54% of customers aged below 26 years would spend more money with companies whom they trust with their personal data. This reinforces the connection between trust and willingness to spend more.

3. UK ecommerce fraud hit nearly £400 million in 2018.

According to UK Finance, the above figure accounted for 78% of card not present (CNP) fraud, which has been fuelled by an ongoing data breach epidemic. The 2017 Equifax data breach affected a total of 209,000 payment card numbers and expiration dates. Understandably, 71% of internet users are worried their personal data could be used to commit fraud against them if stolen in a breach.

Validating customer payments with accurate data will ultimately help your business to mitigate the risk of fraud and erroneous payments. Subsequently, this will save you time and money whilst instilling your customers with confidence.