Study: Brick-and-mortar still appeals to customers

LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill. — Reports of the store’s demise are greatly exaggerated.



According to the annual Global Shopper Study from mobile solutions provider Zebra Technologies Corp., more than three-quarters (76%) of shoppers feel positively about shopping in stores and nearly one-half think that technology solutions are helping retailers enable and improve their shopping experience.



In addition, more than three in 10 shoppers would prefer to go to a retail store to pick up items purchased via online or mobile channels. At the store, consumers are very interested in Wi-Fi and location-based, in-store services such as mobile coupons (51%), shopping maps (45%) and associate assistance (41%).



However, not all is rosy in the world of store-centric omnichannel retail. The study identified that more than one-third of shoppers (34%) believe they are better connected to real-time information than in-store associates. Meanwhile, 64% of shoppers would be willing to purchase more merchandise if they received better customer service and 52% value retailers who use technology to make the in-store experience more efficient.



Other findings include:

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  Retailers can recover 66% of out-of-stock incidents by offering shoppers an immediate discount.


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  Nearly eight in 10 respondents are willing to share some level of information with retailers. But, retailers rank low on the list of institutions that shoppers trust with personal data as only 5% reported they completely trusted retailers.


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  Sixty-four percent of shoppers value retailers who give the flexibility to control how personal information is used to tailor experiences.