Connect with us

Shopping

Coveo’s 2024 Commerce Industry Report Finds More Than 70% of Consumers are Expecting Generative AI to Enhance Their Online Shopping Experience

Published

on

Coveo’s 2024 Commerce Industry Report Finds More Than 70% of Consumers are Expecting Generative AI to Enhance Their Online Shopping Experience

The study shows the increasingly important role that GenAI is playing in guiding purchase decisions, with 72% of consumers expecting their online shopping experiences to evolve with GenAI. These expectations include pre-purchase education on products and attributes and even virtual shopping assistance. Meanwhile, shopper willingness to exchange personal data for deals is on the rise, along with their concerns over its use. The growing influence of social commerce is also a notable trend, particularly for Gen Z shoppers who often discover products on social media platforms, though only 14% said they hit the “buy” button on that channel. All this reveals how ingrained digital interactions have become within the retail customer journey — in fact, Coveo’s survey confirms that 94% prefer to either start or end their shopping experiences online.

“With consumers spending pivotal moments of their shopping journeys online, brands must deliver brick-and-mortar and digital retail experiences that complement each other,” said Lisa Grayston, General Manager of Commerce at Coveo. “What’s more, 9 in 10 consumers are now expecting their online shopping experience to match or exceed the satisfaction of in-store experiences. With the advent of generative AI, online shopping can transcend mere transactions and become conversational and advisory. It’s crucial for retailers to adapt to this shift before they lose ground to their competitors.”

Findings in the latest installment of Coveo’s 2024 Commerce Industry Report include:

  • GenAI has shifted shopper expectations, particularly pre-purchase decision-making: 72% expect their online shopping experiences to evolve with GenAI while 37% expect pre-purchase education on products and attributes, and 31% expect a virtual assistant to help guide them on product selection.
  • High expectations persist for online shopping: 91% expect their online shopping satisfaction to match or surpass in-store experiences, yet 49% of shoppers state they still encounter problems online.
  • Social media piques consumer interest but retail websites are a critical means of conversion: Around two-fifths (39%) stated that they often/always come across products that catch their interest when browsing social media platforms, a figure that increases to over half (55%) for Gen Z. However, only 14% of shoppers said they complete their purchase through that same channel.
  • Product discovery impacts brand perception: More than two-fifths (44%) said finding what they are looking for in just a few clicks would have the strongest impact on their perception of a brand. A further 18% of respondents said that their perception of a brand would be most positively impacted by ease of finding supporting content (manuals, instructions), indicating the significance of delivering robust customer experiences and discovery to more than 60% of consumers overall.
  • Willingness to share personal data for deals is on the rise, but so are concerns over data usage: 54% said that they will share information about themselves if it improves their experience; 65% said they will do so for brands they trust, and/or if they get better deals and offers as a result (compared to 41% and 48%, for the same question in Coveo’s 2023 report). That said, there has also been some uptick in the figure relaying shopper concern over how their data is used by online retailers — rising from 64% in 2023 to 71% in 2024.
  • Post-purchase experience remains a big challenge: 68% have experienced an issue with either customer service, checkout, or post-transaction experiences when interacting with a business, which included navigation and search issues which prevented them from resolving problems or their questions. Millennials (71%) and Gen Z (75%) respondents were more likely to cite either purchase, customer service or post-transaction issues.

To download the full report, please visit the Coveo website.

About Coveo
We strongly believe that the future is business-to-person. That experiences are today’s competitive front line, a make or break for every business. We also believe that remarkable experiences not only enhance user satisfaction but also yield significant gains for enterprises. That is what we call the AI-experience advantage – the degree to which the content, products, recommendations, and advice presented to a person online aligns easily with their needs, intent, preferences, context, and behavior, resulting in superior business outcomes.

To realize this AI-experience advantage at scale, enterprises require a robust, spinal and composable infrastructure capable of unifying content securely and delivering AI search, AI recommendations, true personalization, and a trusted generative experience at every touchpoint with each individual customer, partner and employee.

Coveo is dedicated to bringing this advantage to every point-of-experience, using powerful data and AI models to transform the enterprise in commerce, customer service, website and workplace.

The Coveo platform is ISO 27001 and ISO 27018 certified, SOC2 compliant, HIPAA compatible, with a 99.999% SLA available. We are a Salesforce ISV Partner, an SAP ®Endorsed App, an Adobe Gold Partner, MACH Alliance member and a Genesys AppFoundry ISV Partner.

Coveo is a trademark of Coveo Solutions Inc.

Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains “forward-looking information” and “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, “forward-looking information”). This forward-looking information is identified by the use of terms and phrases such as “may”, “would”, “should”, “could”, “might”, “will”, “achieve”, “occur”, “expect”, “intend”, “estimate”, “anticipate”, “plan”, “foresee”, “believe”, “continue”, “target”, “opportunity”, “strategy”, “scheduled”, “outlook”, “forecast”, “projection”, or “prospect”, the negative of these terms and similar terminology, including references to assumptions, although not all forward-looking information contains these terms and phrases. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, intentions, projections, or other characterizations of future events or circumstances contain forward-looking information. Statements containing forward-looking information are not historical facts but instead represent management’s expectations, estimates, and projections regarding future events or circumstances.

Forward-looking information is necessarily based on a number of opinions, estimates, and assumptions that we considered appropriate and reasonable as of the date such statements are made. Although the forward-looking information contained herein is based upon what we believe are reasonable assumptions, actual results may vary from the forward-looking information contained herein. Certain assumptions made in preparing the forward-looking information contained in herein include, without limitation: our ability to capitalize on growth opportunities and implement our growth strategy; our ability to attract new customers, both domestically and internationally; the success of our efforts to expand our product portfolio and market reach; our ability to maintain successful strategic relationships with partners and other third parties; our future capital requirements; the available liquidity under our revolving credit facility; the accuracy of our estimates of market opportunity and growth forecasts; our success in identifying and evaluating, as well as financing and integrating, any acquisitions, partnerships, or joint ventures; our ability to execute on our expansion plans; and the future impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond our control, that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to macro-economic uncertainties and the risk factors described under “Risk Factors” in the Company’s most recently filed Annual Information Form available under our profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, prospective investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information, which speaks only as of the date made.

Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. Although we have attempted to identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other risk factors not presently known to us or that we presently believe are not material that could also cause actual results or future events to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking information. You should not rely on this forward-looking information, as actual outcomes and results may differ materially from those contemplated by this forward-looking information as a result of such risks and uncertainties. Additional information will also be set forth in other public filings that we make available under our profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com from time to time.

The forward-looking information provided in this press release relates only to events or information as of the date hereof, and are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Except as required by law, we do not assume any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, after the date on which the statements are made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

SOURCE Coveo Solutions Inc.

Continue Reading