X
Innovation

Over one third of shoppers ditch friends to shop with Alexa or Siri

The holiday season is fast-approaching for retailers as we see many brands turn to next-gen technologies to convert more shoppers. But what tech innovations do customers really want?
Written by Eileen Brown, Contributor

Shoppers are torn between shopping online, and in-store but many have never used a chatbot to help them get the best deals online according to a new survey.

Applet services automation platform IFTTT recently surveyed over 1,000 U.S. consumers ahead of this holiday rush to take a pulse on their shopping expectations when it comes to retail technologies, and discounts.

It wanted to understand what plans brands have for their customers. For instance, Swarovski and Mastercard are partnering to offer a virtual reality shopping app, while Walmart teams up with a smartlock company to deliver goods even when no one is home.

Shoppers are looking for deals and expect good discounts on different days. Over one third of respondents (35.13 percent) expect to have the best deals on Black Friday whilst over one in five (20.98 percent) expect Cyber Monday to deliver the best deals.

Almost a third of respondents (28.68 percent) expect the best deals the day after Christmas day. Only 8.57 percent expect the best deals to fall on Amazon Prime day.

The survey showed that although 20.93 percent of customers were frustrated if they had to wait more than 15 minutes in a checkout line, 27.7 percent of respondents hated being notified that an online order's delivery is delayed to post-holiday.

Consumers have not yet fully embraced either robots or AI. When asked whether they would trust a drone or delivery robot to deliver their items on time and in good condition, most (54.68 percent) preferred a delivery robot.

Although two thirds of shoppers (64.26 percent) preferred going to the mall with friends or family, 35.74 percent would prefer to shop from home with Alexa or Siri .

However, when asked: 'would you trust a robot to do your shopping for you?', 17.09 percent confirmed that they would but a whopping four out of five (82.91 percent) said that they would not.

Nearly 70 percent of respondents have never used a retail chatbot, and a quarter don't even know what chatbots are. Only 9.05 percent of respondents had actually used one.

Shoppers would like to engage in via virtual reality to buy several items. Over half of respondents (58.59 percent) said that they would like to decorate a virtual room with furniture and decor before purchasing, and 36.26 percent would like to try on apparel virtually before purchasing.

But we seem to be traditionalists at heart. Although over one third of us (33.77 percent) equally divide our time between shopping online and in-store, almost four out of ten of us (37.88 percent) would prefer that retailers communicate their holiday deals to them via emails.

Only 12.4 percent prefer deals through social media posts

So if we do not trust drones for delivery, perhaps there is always a chance for Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. Almost two thirds 65.82 percent of wags said that they would prefer reindeer deliveries this Christmas.

We can but hope.

RELATED CONTENT

Most US workers want to see more AI and robots in the office

Although workers want robots in the workplace to give them more time to do their primary job duties, almost all still want the human touch in the office.

Which trends will be hot for marketers this holiday season?

As Amazon reaches further and further across our online shopping experience, which trends can brand marketers use to effectively compete?

Social networking and video dominate smartphone use, but email generates the most ROI

force, and entertaining us accounts for over half of this traffic, but does creating content for our entertainment generate the most return on investment (ROI) for marketers?

As AI floods the market, which chatbots deliver the best ROI for enterprises?

A recent report shows that AI and chatbots can bring a huge ROI (return on investment) for the enterprise. But which solution should you choose?

Editorial standards