We surveyed 500 online consumers in Canada to see what they think of eCommerce experiences, the state of social media for marketing in 2024, and the potential of emerging tech as part of the online shopping experience.
In this article
Competing for online business can be hard for small to midsize enterprises (SMEs), especially if they don’t have the same budgets as their larger competitors. Their success relies on staying up to date on their sector, consumer habits, and technology.
To find out how these are changing, we surveyed 500 people in Canada who shop online at least a few times a month. This forms part of a larger global study of 5,585 online shoppers across 12 countries.
In part one, we found that buyer journeys still start and end in familiar places. We also looked at what makes a loyal customer and how brands can earn consumers’ trust. In this article, we dive deeper into social media marketing, the user experience of eCommerce sites, and what role artificial intelligence (AI) has to play in online shopping.
You can scroll down to the bottom of this article for a full methodology.
- Two-thirds say they have no interest in new tech for online shopping, including AI, the metaverse, virtual and augmented reality, and voice recognition.
- When it comes to interacting with brands on social media, 42% of online consumers say they prefer not to engage.
- Only 15% have tried chatbots to search for products online, but two-thirds of these would do so again in the future.
Traditional consumer tech still dominates
On the whole, shoppers in Canada do not seem to be embracing innovation in eCommerce. Most said they would not be interested in using any of the emerging technologies we asked them about to shop online, and only QR codes (which have been widespread since the 2010s) were attractive to more than ten percent of respondents. This sentiment is especially pronounced in Canada. Over two-thirds here show no interest in new technologies for online shopping versus a global average of 42%.
Indeed, the vast majority (99%) of respondents said they primarily use three familiar devices to do their online shopping: laptop or desktop computers (59%), smartphones (28%), and tablets (11%).
Key takeaway: eCommerce bands may have read the hype about the metaverse, AI, and virtual reality and felt the need to develop offerings in this area. But consumers in Canada show very low interest in these as shopping tools.
For now, retailers should focus on making their sites and apps user-friendly on the major platforms that consumers do use. User experience (UX) software describes a range of tools that help make digital experiences intuitive, accessible, and productive.
Social media fatigue could be a problem for online brands
In a previous article, we revealed how the majority of consumers are mistrustful of influencers on social media, and how they feel overwhelmed by the number of ads they see on these platforms.
Shoppers have some tolerance for brands interacting with them on social media, but they certainly don’t embrace it. A plurality would prefer not to engage, but around one-third say they are prepared to receive relevant ads or be sent discounts from brands.
This mistrust of social media extends to the platforms themselves. Although respondents may think personalized ads are OK, a large majority (83%) said that they do not want social media companies to know what products they buy online.
On balance, however, social media advertising may yet be a worthwhile tactic for brands to use. Our survey suggests that people are slightly more likely to take a positive action than a negative one in response to an ad on social media:
- 42% said they looked up information about a product in response to an ad on social media in the past 12 months
- 28% said they purchased one or more products
- 14% said they followed a brand
However, 22% have blocked or unfollowed a brand in response to a social media ad in the past year, and 28% blocked specific advertisements.
Key takeaway: Making the best use of social media in 2024 is tricky. On the one hand, it can be a valuable marketing channel and help build a community around your brand. But, on the other hand, businesses must be mindful of customers’ concerns about privacy and harmful content on these platforms.
Good social media teams have tools at their disposal that help them manage accounts, track sentiment, and make informed choices about what content to post where. Social media management software can also centralize and streamline admin across many different accounts to make operations more efficient. Some tools also allow marketers to see engagement and gauge how their ad investment is performing.
The on-page experience is a vital part of the user journey
Once shoppers have landed on an eCommerce site, there are still many possible routes they could take before a purchase. They can search, browse, filter, compare, and save products, as well as contact the company if they have queries.
Interestingly, the ways users browse an online store closely match how people would browse in a physical store. Nearly three-quarters of those who begin their online product searches on retailers’ stores or apps said they browse by category, around half use a search bar, and slightly more check the sales or discount pages. These have real-life equivalents in browsing a certain section, asking a salesperson for help, and checking out the markdown shelves.
But unlike in a physical store, online buyers can filter so they only see the products they’re interested in. In our survey, 90% said they use filters at least some of the time. They mainly select for price (71%), brand (51%), size/fit (49%), and delivery options (32%).
Despite brands’ best efforts, user experience can sometimes fall flat. This is especially apparent when shoppers can’t find what they’re looking for using the tools provided to them. Shoppers commonly report that filters are not specific enough and that they don’t work as they should. While search results can be inaccurate, irrelevant, and dominated by sponsored content.
Key takeaway: We saw in part one how online buyers still start and end their journeys in familiar places, and a cornerstone of these journeys is the eCommerce site itself.
It may be tempting to think of websites as a ‘solved problem’, but there is always room to optimize pages to deliver a smoother experience. Consumers expect sites to work flawlessly, and technology provides constant new ways to deliver this.
There are many eCommerce solutions available today, ranging from complete sales platforms to specific tools. SMEs may benefit especially from these off-the-shelf products rather than self building their own, so that staff can concentrate on running the business rather than maintaining a software platform.
Take care when using AI to make recommendations
AI tools have developed rapidly over recent years, and they are now widely available to both consumers and SMEs. In eCommerce, they can power chatbots, for example, which can automatically field customer queries, answer them in some cases, or direct them to the most appropriate resources. There is potential for eCommerce brands to use these tools to help customers find what they want more easily, but shoppers may not be ready for it.
Respondents to our survey do not see these chatbots as a significant way to search for products online, but those that have tried them seem to find them useful. Only 15% have tried them before, and of these, two-thirds plan to do so again in the future.
A more established use of AI (or at least predictive algorithms) in eCommerce is making personalized recommendations to shoppers. Customers are used to seeing these recommendations, but may find some more acceptable than others depending on what data they are based on.
For example, most (61%) were happy to be recommended discounts or deals, which can be done without the retailer having personalized the offer in any way. A slightly lower proportion (41%) were happy to have recommendations based on their past purchases. And a quarter would accept recommendations based on their search or viewing history.
Key takeaway: Advances in AI continue to present new use cases for SMEs, but brands should be cautious about implementing a technology just for the sake of it.
Customers aren’t rushing to take advantage of chatbots, for example, but if implemented in the right way, they can be useful to certain segments of your brand’s customer base. Chatbot software is widely available and provides various customer service functions for your website or app. These include answering common questions, booking appointments, and suggesting or upselling products.
3 ways for eCommerce SMEs to reach customers in 2024
- Understand what shoppers want from your site
Tracking how people interact with your pages or app is the only way to make it better. It allows you to understand your weaknesses and strengths as they appear to your users so you can reduce churn, increase conversions, and build a product that works better for you and your customers.
2. Social media requires an expert touch
Brands can’t treat social media as a part-time exercise. The field is becoming increasingly complex, with new commercial, ethical, and legal considerations arising all the time. A dedicated social media manager or external agency will ensure that your activities generate maximum value with minimal risk.
3. Be choosy about your AI investments
AI is appealing, but SMEs should identify solid business cases before deploying the latest all-singing, all-dancing tool. The majority of consumers are not currently embracing eCommerce use cases, but you could investigate how AI tools can automate internal processes and improve efficiency.
Methodology:
Capterra's 2024 Elusive Online Consumer Survey was conducted online in April 2024 among 5,585 respondents in the U.S. (n=500), Canada (n=500), Brazil (n=497), Mexico (n=470), the U.K. (n=499), France (n=271), Italy (n=496), Germany (n=496), Spain (n=359), Australia (n=497), India (n=500), and Japan (n=500). The goal of the study was to learn about how today's online consumer shops. Respondents were screened to have shopped online several times a month or more often.
