What Digital Department Store Services Do Consumers Find Creepy?

Consumers find it creepy when sales associates know what’s in their digital basket

May 6, 2016 | Retail & Ecommerce

Department stores offer several digital services to consumers, ranging from personalized promotional offers to receiving recommendations from a personal shopper. While some find these services to be cool, others find them creepy.

Accenture surveyed 10,096 smartphone users worldwide, ages 18 and older who shopped digitally and in-store in the past three months. When asked about their attitudes towards items automatically discounted for loyalty points and discounts, 86% of smartphone users said that it was cool. Just 4% of respondents said it was creepy.

Nearly two-thirds of smartphone users also found it cool if department store websites were optimized by device or if promotional offers sent to them were based on items they were considering online. Only few found these services to be creepy.

When it came to a service where a personal shopper in-store pulled items according to a customer’s profile, budget, purchase history and what they already own, 42% of respondents found that to be creepy. In contrast, 31% found it to be cool.

Similarly, 46% of smartphone users said that retailers showing feedback left by their friends on products they were considering was creepy. And more than half of respondents said that sales associates who know what’s in their digital basket or wishlist is creepy as well. Only 21% of respondents found that service to be cool.

Overall, mobile is affecting the traditional path to purchase. In fact, when internet users in North America were polled by Magnetic and Retail TouchPoints, 59% of respondents cited consistency between digital channels and in-store as the most important part of a retail experience, while consistency across devices was vital to 54%.