Table of contents:
- TL;DR
- Introduction
- Most frequent on the Top 50 list: electronics retailers
- Leaders in digital experience: fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) retailers
- Traditional customer experience tactics dominate, while modern retention approaches are rarely implemented
TL;DR
Introduction
In December, our analysis focused on the Netherlands' leading consumer brands, revealing insights that led to the first Conway Brand Radar (Top 50 Dutch DTC Brands). Our goal was to better understand the status quo of Dutch e-commerce and benchmark customer centricity amongst leading brands.
Yet, this was merely the tip of the iceberg: consumer brands represented only a segment of the broader e-commerce landscape. Retailers, in fact, account for a larger share of e-commerce sales, both globally and in the Dutch market. Recognising this, our research had to expand.
Echoing our approach with consumer brands, we scrutinised the largest Dutch retailers, evaluating them against a set of criteria that form the backbone of e-commerce success: omnichannel integration, user experience, customer support, and the efficiency of payment and delivery options. Each retailer was assigned a Digital Experience score, reflecting their performance across these dimensions.
The question then arises: what insights did this expanded analysis uncover about the state of e-commerce in the Netherlands?
1. Most frequent on the Top 50 list: electronics retailers
Electronics retailers comprise 24% of the Netherlands' Top 50 retailers, including names like Coolblue, Belsimpel, iBood, and Expert.
However, their digital experiences, on average, have a relatively low score: 3.2 out of 5.
Indeed, electronics and hardware retailers had the lowest digital experience scores on Brand Radar. Possible reasons for this could include:
- Price-sensitive decision-making: in the electronics market, consumers often visit multiple retail sites to compare prices of the same product. They ultimately choose the retailer that offers the lowest price. In response, retailers invest in competitive pricing strategies and discounts instead of enhancing the digital experience.
- High SKU volume: retailers in electronics (and hardware) typically feature large product assortments from a multitude of suppliers. Shoppers, usually arriving with specific needs, engage in focused searches and product comparisons rather than broad exploration. There are many challenges for retailers in offering clear, sufficient, and comparable specifications for each product.
- Steep product learning curve: the complexity of electronics and hardware necessitates in-depth product understanding before purchase. Instead of aiding decision-making through a digital experience, these retailers usually provide direct customer support channels (i.e., phone, email, chat) with rapid response times to all customers’ inquiries.
- Appliances (i.e., washing machine or fridge) subscription and service;
- AR (augmented reality) application, helping customers place bigger appliances in their room via phone camera;
- Helpful intermediary product listing pages (i.e., “dishwashers guide”)
2. Leaders in digital experience: fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) retailers
All the retailers on the Top 50 list with a score of “5 - Excellent” were either in food & drinks (i.e., Albert Heijn, Picnic, Jumbo) or beauty & health (i.e., Etos). The average digital experience score amongst these categories is 4 out of 5, which is 16% higher than average across all the retailers on the list.
FMCG retailers tend to have more seamless experiences owing to:
- High purchase frequency: regular buying patterns in FMCG enable retailers to refine the online experience and effectively use customer data for personalised shopping and loyalty. It includes tailored product recommendations, reordering, and customised promotions offered via retailers’ apps.
- Impulse purchases: many FMCG purchases are influenced by attractive packaging, promotions, or in-store displays. The same principle can be applied online, where strategically placed product recommendations and last-minute add-on suggestions at checkout have a stronger impact than in other categories.
- Seamless omnichannel Integrations: retailers in these categories often have physical store networks and strive to develop integrations across online and offline channels, data-driven stock management, and unified customer profiles. This seamless cross-channel shopping experience has become a standard among FMCG retailers. As a result, customers enjoy seamless click-and-collect ordering, personalised offers and loyalty programs that work cross-channel, or in-store integrations (i.e., QR codes or even augmented reality).
3. Traditional customer experience tactics dominate, while modern retention approaches are rarely implemented
One of the main commonalities among the Top 50 retailers in the Netherlands is their relentless dedication to providing superior customer service and advice. The vast majority of the analysed retailers have prominent support channels that allow customers to access representatives immediately.
While this is great, many retailers tend to overlook other, more modern opportunities to improve customer experience and retention, such as:
- Providing product advice through product wizards or thematic browsing.
- Implementing AI-powered chatbots that can handle complex customer queries, provide personalized shopping advice, and offer instant support.
- Developing personalised shopping experiences through a comprehensive and unified customer data platform, which collects data from multiple touchpoints and predicts returning customer needs.
- Encourage and incorporate user-generated content like reviews, photos, and testimonials.
- Adding community features like forums or Q&A sections for products.
Conclusion
Our primary objective with this analysis is to motivate the creation of robust and adaptive consumer brands, offering strategic insights and practical advice along the way.
Thank you for joining and keep an eye out for future editions of the Brand Radar! We will continue assessing brands across various regions and sectors, providing an increasingly comprehensive view of the global market trends.