Happy Friday! ‘This week in CX’ brings you the latest roundup of industry news.

This week, we’re looking at the latest research reports in the retail industry. This includes Emarsys investigating the disconnect between retailers and consumers; customers losing faith in their order deliveries; Google Cloud’s new AI retail tools; and how retailers are at risk with new expectations. We also have exclusive comment about the latest ChatGPT function, and Zendesk’s CX Trends Report.

Key news

  • Tech giant Microsoft is set to cut 10,000 jobs in the next round of staff redundancies. It will affect up to 5% of its global workforce and cost the business $1.2bn (£972m) in severance and reorganisation costs.
  • Emplifi have announced the launch of EmplifiTM AI Composer. It is a solution that generates ready-to-publish social media copy. This should help brands to increase efficiencies across their social platforms. It is a cost-effective solution that saves on the resources associated with traditional content creation methods. The solution prompts social media teams to input their message instructions and select various customisations such as tone, emojis, hashtags or questions. It then modifies and enriches this content before using the OpenAI GPT-3 framework to generate the expected ready-to-publish social media copy. 

“Marketers can [now] scale their content curation like never before. Adding AI technology to the content mix will help spark creativity across teams while strengthening productivity. We are thrilled to offer our clients a cutting-edge solution that will enhance the talents they already possess.”

–Zarnaz Arlia, CMO, Emplifi
  • SalesManago has found that the lowest day of the year for European eCommerce sales in 2022 was the 28th May. This was, coincidentally, the same day as the Champions League final. Data revealed that the most popular day that consumers purchased online was Tuesday, while Saturday was the least popular day. While the data revealed that the average number of transactions per day increased by 33%, the year saw greater volatility, with higher highs and lower lows compared to 2021. 
  • New data from Kin + Carta and Google Cloud has found 24% of major UK retailers don’t know how to communicate effectively with their customers. Big brands who participated in the poll include Dunelm, Marks & Spencer, and Natwest. Other results from the survey showed that 19%  of retailers are looking to improve their optimisation for customer value across marketing-sales-digital operations. 
  • Authenticx have announced $20M in Series B funding led by Blue Heron Capital. The investment comes after a significant year of growth for Authenticx, which saw a 2.5x increase in ARR in 2022 and 64 new employees since July 2021

The latest news in the retail industry sum-up

The disconnect between customer and retailer perceptions (by Emarsys)

Only 16% of UK consumers think that retailers react to their feedback — despite 69% of businesses claiming to do so. The research, which surveyed both consumers and retailers across the UK, highlights the struggle to keep up with customers and identifies several disconnects between the two. It found that 28% of UK consumers believe their feedback is being used purely for marketing purposes rather than making meaningful changes. More than a quarter (26%) have no idea what happens to their feedback, while 29% believe that it either isn’t acted upon or goes completely unread.

With over two thirds (69%) of businesses stating that they review feedback in detail and make changes based on the content, these numbers indicate that many consumers don’t trust brands to act on their demands. 

Here’s what the research concluded that UK consumers want to see from retailers this year:

  • rewarding customer loyalty (32%) 
  • improving customer service (30%)
  • more sustainability (24%)
  • understanding customers better (22%)

For retailers, the list is slightly different of their priorities for the year:

  • Improving customer service (39%)
  • understanding customers (39%)
  • rewarding customer loyalty (37%)

We’ll have to wait and see how retailers perform on their priorities based on what their consumers really want from them. Let’s see if these new insights will help to fix some of these broken perceptions.

Three quarters of customers are suspicious and losing faith when it comes to their order deliveries (by Sorted)

73% of consumers think more parcels are going missing since the cost-of-living crisis, with the UK potentially seeing a porch poacher phenomenon. Sorted found that consumers are losing trust that online deliveries will arrive on time – if at all – amidst the current chaotic climate. The survey, consisting of 1,000 UK consumers, found that 63% have experienced a delayed order in the past six months. Over two fifths experienced a delay of more than two weeks.

55% have also had their orders lost or damaged. Of those who experienced issues, 73% had to chase the retailer on the whereabouts of their parcel. This is rather than receiving proactive delivery tracking updates from the retail brand itself. Unsurprisingly, 85% of consumers are either not, or only somewhat, confident that online deliveries will arrive on time or undamaged.

One cause of the disruption was the postal strike. 68% reported having had their delivery impacted. To avoid disappointment, 63% said they ordered an online delivery earlier because of anticipated delays. 69% have shopped in-store because they didn’t trust an online order would arrive when promised.

Despite this, 87% of consumers would trust a brand more if they had communicated the status of the delivery more effectively. 47% of consumers say they now always read reviews on the delivery experiences before they purchase online. Delivering on time (37%) was voted the most valued aspect of the delivery experience. This was followed by low shipping costs (32%) and proactive updates about their order/return (26%).

Google Cloud unveils new AI tools for retailers

Google Cloud have announced four newly updated AI technologies. They will help retailers streamline in-store shelf checking operations and create more fluid and natural online shopping experiences. 

  • The AI-powered shelf checking tool. This will help retailers improve on-shelf product availability, provide better visibility into what their shelves actually look like, and help them understand where restocks are needed. 
  • Browse AI. To help retailers make the online browsing and product discovery experience faster, more intuitive and more helpful for shoppers. It will help transform the digital window shopping experience with advancements in browsing.
  • AI-driven personalisation capability. This will customise the results a customer gets when they search and browse a retailer’s website. The technology turbo-charges the capabilities of Google Cloud’s new Browse AI offering and existing Retail Search solution. 
  • Better product recommendations for shoppers. Google Cloud’s Recommendations AI solution uses machine learning to help retailers bring product recommendations to their shoppers. This includes a new page-level optimisation feature. There’s also a revenue optimisation feature, with built in collaboration with Google’s DeepMind. This uses machine learning to offer better product recommendations that can lift revenue per user session on any ecommerce site. Additionally, there is a buy-it-again model. This leverages a customer’s shopping history to provide personalised recommendations for potential repeat purchases. 

Google Cloud’s shelf checking AI tool is now in preview globally. The other new retail technologies are all now globally available to retailers.

Expectations climb despite economic lows (by MuleSoft)

A new global survey of 5,000 consumers reveals critical changes to consumer spending amid inflation and economic uncertainty. These findings highlight current sentiment on spending and what it will take to earn consumer loyalty in 2023.

Retailers are most at risk. 79% of consumers say they will reassess their spending with retail brands over the coming year. Travel, hospitality, media and entertainment also face the potential for lowered spend. 78% and 70% of consumers, respectively, have reported reassessment plans in those sectors.

  • 81% of consumers say they will reassess their budget over the next 12 months as they seek more personalised experiences 
  • 52% of consumers say poor quality service is the primary reason they won’t make a repeat purchase
  • Over 60% expect companies to react instantly with up-to-date information when transferred between departments 

Zendesk’s 2023 CX Trends Report

The company’s latest report has revealed that immersive experiences are fast becoming a key differentiator for brands to stay competitive and help ensure customers remain loyal. According to the report, 71% of customers surveyed both globally and in the UK are excited about experiences that are natural, convenient and fluid.  

Here are some of the key stats from nearly 3,700 customers and over 4,700 customer service and experience leaders, agents, and technology buyers from 20 countries:

  • Of those who interact with customer service bots on a regular basis, 72% have experienced quality improvements. Bots perform well when answering simple inquiries, respond faster than human agents, and are reliable to surface accurate, helpful information. 
  • 75% expect AI interactions will become more natural and human-like over time. The ideal evolution of AI will enable customers to ask increasingly complex questions. 
  • Around 70% of participants (69% UK and 61% EMEA)) spend more with brands that provide a seamless experience between all points of contact. 
  • Similarly, 64% of customers will spend more if their issues are resolved where they are. 
  • 59% want companies to use the large amount of data they have to provide truly personalised experiences that transcend typical marketing efforts. That is whether it is online or in-store, compared to 48% in EMEA. 
  • Only 22% of leaders and managers say that customer sentiment is used to personalise the experience a customer receives.
  • 73% will switch to a competitor after multiple bad experiences. More than half will head to the exit after one unsatisfactory interaction.

New exclusive commentary: What does the explosion of ChatGPT mean for CX professionals?

“ChatGPT could make CX more responsive, human, and self-directed. That’s because ChatGPT promises to deliver the always-on experience that chatbots provide already, but by answering more complex questions more completely and conversationally. Conversations with ChatGPT could give CX professionals a wealth of first-party data about customers’ interests, especially because customers could conceivably ask more detailed questions that provide more insight than simple queries could.

It’s exciting to imagine a world where all this is possible, but that’s not the reality today. Today’s version of ChatGPT is in beta, and because it lacks access to the internet it cannot yet answer research questions quite like a search engine. Nor is it ready for businesses to use for CX insights, one reason being that ChatGPT is fraught with challenges such as bias and accuracy that must be overcome. As such, ChatGPT serves as a reminder of the importance of human training and oversight in the development of AI models.

There are certainly areas for improvement and development. But, the speed in which advancements in AI technology are being realised certainly bodes well for the future of chatbots such as ChatGPT.“

– Adam Dorfman, Vice President of Product, Reputation.

Thanks for tuning into CXM’s weekly roundup of industry news. Check back next Friday for the latest updates of the week!

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