Report: M-Commerce needs to up customer service quotient

According to the report 84% of online shoppers during the 2011 holiday season said their online experience was good or excellent. A 'good' shopper experience included simple check outs, effective navigation and informative user reviews.

"With so much hype around emerging channels this holiday season, our survey shows online retailers which of them actually delivered the best online experience according to the shoppers themselves," said Anurag Wadehra, chief marketing officer for Baynote. "While social, mobile and tablet all have tremendous potential, retailers need to improve the customer shopping experience across these new channels. This holds particularly true for the tablet, which we expect will dominate all other emerging channels in the coming year."

As for social commerce about 80% of those surveyed said social networks didn't influence holiday shopping although most (55%) said friend recommendations was important to their decision making.

Other interesting findings include:

• 49% of tablet owners used them to purchase items over the 2011 holidays
• 60% said they would use tablets to research purchases in the next year
• 57% made purchases of products recommended to them
• 93% said mobile platforms 'met or exceeded' their expectations

Meanwhile Responsys reports, according to retail email volume, the top retail days were Cyber Monday (87% send rate), Black Friday (81% send rate), Thanksgiving Day (75% send rate) and Last Sleigh Day (December 21, 74% send rate).

"Retailers sent each of their subscribers 177 promotional email campaigns on average last year, up 16% from 2010," said Chad White, Research Director at Responsys. "Since 2008, the average number of promotional email campaigns sent by the top retailers to each of their subscribers has risen 51%."

Overall, Fridays were the busiest marketing days of 2011

Tags: Baynote, ecommerce, ecommerce tips, ecommerce trends, mobile commerce, online shopping, Responsys, retail email