GartnerGroup's Dataquest Says 88 Percent of Consumers Rate Online Buying Satisfactory Despite Delivery and Customer Service Problems
Dataquest Survey Shows 20 Percent of Consumers Experienced Problems
Stamford, Conn, September 7, 1999—In about a third of the 37 million U.S. households having access to the Internet or online services, lives at least one person who placed an order or made a reservation online during the period from February to April 1999, according to Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner Group, Inc. (NYSE: IT). Of these households, 2.4 million, or about 20 percent, experienced problems.
Dataquest research showed that of households experiencing problems, 49 percent reported that they placed orders that did not arrive. Nevertheless, in more than half of these households, the customer was billed for the order. For a quarter of the households that experienced problems, the main problem was the inability to contact the merchant's customer service department via e-mail.
Despite some early stumbling on the part of merchants, overall consumer satisfaction with the online purchasing process is quite high, with 88 percent of all respondents giving it a satisfactory rating.
"The primary key to overall consumer satisfaction with online purchasing to date is the ease of placing orders or reservations," said Dr. Harry Hoyle, vice president for Dataquest's The Interactive Home: Technology & Infrastructure U.S. program. "Clearly this is critical to the future of e-commerce, for when an online experience is consistently more satisfactory than in the physical world, and at the same or lower price, consumers' habits are likely to change permanently. But it is crucial to remember there is no second chance to win customer loyalty."
In the rush to participate in e-commerce, some efforts have been less than perfect. Many merchants have not implemented effective links to back-office systems, nor have they given sufficient consideration to online customer support. Dr. Hoyle noted that "anytime shopping" brings with it a user expectation for "anytime support," which merchants have often been unable to fulfill.
"It is vital to win the customer loyalty at this early stage in the development of e-commerce. Internet merchants have the opportunity to gain competitive advantage if they can provide outstanding and imaginative online customer service," Dr. Hoyle said.
Additional information on this market is available by subscribing to Dataquest's The Interactive Home: Technology & Infrastructure U.S. program. This program provides strategic analysis of how consumer use of technology and communications is changing. More information on this program, as well as other Dataquest e-commerce and Internet programs is available on Dataquest's Web site at http://www.dataquest.com/dq/static/offer/inteco_products.html.
To subscribe to this program or other consumer Internet related programs, please call 203-316-3107. To subscribe to other Dataquest programs please call 800-419-DATA, or 408-468-8009. More information about Dataquest's programs, descriptions of recent research reports, and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://www.dataquest.com.
GartnerGroup's Dataquest is the recognized leader in providing the high-technology and financial communities with market intelligence for the semiconductor, computer systems and peripherals, communications, document management, software, and services sectors of the global information technology industry.
As the world's leading authority on IT, GartnerGroup provides clients with a wide range of products and services in the areas of IT advisory services, measurement, research, decision support, analysis, and consulting. Founded in 1979, with headquarters in Stamford, Conn., GartnerGroup is at the center of a global community serving Fortune 1000 clients from 80 locations worldwide. Additional information about the company is available on the Internet at www.gartner.com.
CONTACTS:
Fred Dulaney Tom McCall
(203) 316-3109
fred.dulaney@gartner.com 		Tom McCall
(408) 468-8312
tom.mccall@gartner.com