LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nearly three-quarters of online retailers(74 percent) miss out on sales by promoting irrelevant items to online shoppers, according to new research from OrderDynamics. As retailers prepare for the crucial holiday shopping season, many could be driving customers away by promoting irrelevant products, failing to build customer relationships through intelligent follow-up, and ignoring consumer preferences on end-to-end order tracking.

The OrderDynamics study compares customer acquisition and retention to a “dating game” and found that retailers miss the mark in many areas of the customer relationship. The study focuses on retailers’ effectiveness in securing a “first date” or purchase, as well as creating long-term relationships that lead to additional purchases and increased order values. The study was based on surveys of more than 60 retailers and 2,000 consumers and was conducted by Opinion Matters on behalf of OrderDynamics.

Key findings include:

• 74 percent of retailers promote irrelevant items to shoppers. A majority of retailers received failing grades in shopper follow-up by sending irrelevant information. For example, an apparel retailer sent promotional emails about women’s sweaters to a researcher that saved men’s fleecewear in an online shopping cart, while a pet supplies retailer sent promos on cat and dog food to someone who exclusively browsed the aquatics department.
• 1/3 of retailers never follow up with shoppers, while others bombard them with emails. A surprising number of retailers – 33 percent – never followed up when researchers signed up for their mailing list, missing out on a key opportunity to build and nurture the customer relationship. Others went overboard; one retailer, for example, sent 17 emails in a four-week period—a sure turn-off for consumers.
• Poor site search results lead to missed sales opportunities. Forty-six percent (46%) of shoppers prefer to go directly to a retailer’s website to search for products, yet many retailers’ eCommerce sites miss the mark for online search accuracy—leading to customer defection and lost sales. For example, one retailer’s site returned 65 results for “silver cufflinks,” but only three items were cufflinks, while the others were silver but not cufflinks.
• Only 15 percent of retailers offer order tracking through their website. A majority of consumers expressed a strong preference to receive order tracking information directly from the retailer, yet only 15 percent of retailers empower consumers to track orders through their websites.

“Our message to retailers is simple: customer relationships are theirs to win or lose, and retailers must focus on these disconnects in their customers’ experiences to succeed during the vital holiday push. They must use data more intelligently and effectively in order to engage and win shoppers,” said Kevin Sterneckert, CMO, OrderDynamics. “Retailers must walk a fine line between romancing customers and over-approaching them to ensure that shopping is a seamless experience. If retailers disappoint shoppers, they risk losing not only the initial sale but the customer relationship as well.”

Sterneckert continued: “We call these disappointments and disconnects in data and operations the Ghost Economy, and it is worth more than $800 billion annually to global retailers to solve these issues and create frictionless experiences for their customers.”

For more information on the results of this consumer survey, read the new OrderDynamics study, Customer Relationships: The Dating Game, available for download here. Or read more about the $800 billion Ghost Economy in this exclusive Q&A between OrderDynamics president John Squire and retail visionary and advisor Ron Offir, who previously led digital transformation at Michael Kors, The Jones Group, Gap and Coach.

About OrderDynamics

OrderDynamics is the world’s leading big data prescriptive analytics software company, built for enterprise-level retail. We believe that the order is the moment of truth – when profit can be made or lost. With more than 90 clients in 33 countries, we help the world’s leading retailers activate commerce from first interaction to final fulfillment with our Dynamic Action, Commerce Platform and Order Management solutions and services. We empower agile and intelligent commerce experiences so that our clients, including Neiman Marcus, Brooks Brothers, Speedo, Laura Canada, T.M. Lewin and Asda Direct, win at that very moment of truth.

OrderDynamics is headquartered in London, with offices in Silicon Valley, Toronto, France, India and Bulgaria. Connect with us at www.orderdynamics.com and @OrderDynamics on Twitter.

Note to editors: All data, unless otherwise stated, is based on research conducted by Opinion Matters and OrderDynamics comprising a survey of 2,000 UK adult consumers on their retail expectations and a retailer benchmark study of more than 60 online retailers (UK sites) on the services and experiences they offer today.