Global Shopper Study 2018: The Differences Between Consumers and Retailers

[nusratjahan]

Zebra Technologies Corporation , an innovator that empowers its customers to achieve significant competitive advantages, today announced the results of its 11th annual Global Shopper Study, which analyzes the attitudes, opinions and expectations of consumers, sales associates and retail decision-makers.

The results show that two-thirds of the sales assistants interviewed believe that, if equipped with a tablet, they could offer better customer service and optimize the shopping experience .

Fifty-five percent of sales associates surveyed say their company is understaffed in its stores, and nearly one in two says they are overworked. Sales associates cite stress and frustration over consistently failing to properly assist customers, and 42% feel they have too little time to help customers because they have many other tasks to complete.
Another 28% say it's very difficult to acquire the right shop information to assist customers. Most retail decision-makers and store managers agree that consumers would enjoy a better shopping experience if sales associates were equipped with the necessary technology.

At the same time, only 13% of consumers surveyed say they fully trust retailers to protect their personal data , the lowest level of trust compared to 10 other different sectors. Seventy-three percent of respondents prefer greater flexibility in controlling how their personal information is used.

The study also highlights a trend of diverging expectations among retailers and store managers regarding the impact of automation. Nearly 80% of retailers believe that in-store checkout staff are becoming less necessary due to new self-checkout technologies.
Furthermore, more than half of retailers are already converging on the point-of-sale (POS) space for self-checkout, and most are transforming it to enable rapid fulfillment of online orders.

More than half of consumers surveyed say they are more effectively connected than sales associates. Retailers are investing in technology that can give them a competitive advantage to close this gap. Approximately 60% of retailers are planning to increase spending on handheld computers by more than 6%, and more than one in five retailers plans to allocate 10% of that spending on rugged tablets over the next three years.