News from the Wire

Tealeaf survey: Online retailers potentially lost over $44 billion

Wednesday, October 13, 2010 — 12:36:19 (EDT)

San Francisco, Sept. 27, 2010 -- Tealeaf®, the leader in online customer experience management (CEM) software, today announced the results of its commissioned survey of Online Transactions, conducted online by Harris Interactive®. The survey found that retailers who operate in the online channel may have lost more than $44 billion dollars over this past year as a result of transaction problems on their website.1 As more consumers forego brick-and-mortar stores in favor of online shopping, the impact of lost revenue from poor online experiences directly impacts the bottom line of businesses across diverse industries. Significantly, the Online Transactions study found that more than one-fourth of online shoppers (27 percent) would turn to an online or offline competitor if they encountered an online transaction issue, which further validates the need for organizations to have comprehensive insight into the online experiences of their customers.

Specifically, the survey found that, if online shoppers were to encounter a problem while attempting to conduct an online transaction, they would react as follows:

• 66 percent - contact customer service, including:
• 53 percent - call customer service
• 36 percent - email or log a web complaint with customer service
• 32 percent - abandon transaction entirely, including:
• 27 percent - turn to a competitor

The Online Transactions survey also found that about 2 in 3 online adults (66 percent) have conducted a shopping transaction in the past year, and more than half (56 percent) have conducted a financial transaction such as managing their personal bank accounts, paying bills, and investing in the stock market. Nearly half of adults (49 percent) have conducted travel transactions online, while nearly 1 in 5 (17 percent) have conducted insurance transactions. Given the high volume of online transactions across industries, the need for delivering seamless online experiences is critical to avoiding potential lost revenue.

Bruce Temkin, managing partner of Temkin Group, recently surveyed large and small enterprises to highlight the differences these organizations face in achieving customer experience success. "One common thread remained throughout our research," said Temkin. "The lack of a clear customer experience management strategy posed a significant obstacle to improving customer experience, regardless of company size. This is truly a universal problem, and the bottom line is that companies cannot achieve success without making customer experience a 'real' priority through the right technologies, behaviors and best practices."

"The potential for lost revenue when customers have a negative online shopping experience is amplified by the rising use of social media," said Rebecca Ward, CEO of Tealeaf. "The ‘echo chamber effect' caused by frustrated customers who voice their displeasure on social networks can significantly damage an organization's reputation. Proactively identifying website issues presents an opportunity for businesses to recover some of that $44 billion in potentially lost revenue, especially as we head into the upcoming holiday shopping season."

Survey Methodology

This Online Transactions survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of Tealeaf Technology between July 15 and July 19, 2010, among 2,104 U.S. adults ages 18+, of whom, 1,484 have conducted a shopping transaction online in the past year ("online shoppers"). Data were weighted to be representative of the online U.S. adult population. Complete methodology—including weighting variables—available upon request. For more information, please contact Lara Sasken at lsasken@tealeaf.com.

About Harris Interactive

Harris Interactive is one of the world's leading custom market research firms, leveraging research, technology, and business acumen to transform relevant insight into actionable foresight. Known widely for The Harris Poll and for pioneering innovative research methodologies, Harris offers expertise in a wide range of industries including healthcare, technology, public affairs, energy, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail, restaurant, and consumer package goods. Serving clients in over 215 countries and territories through our North American, European, and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms, Harris specializes in delivering research solutions that help us—and our clients—stay ahead of what's next. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com .

About Tealeaf

Tealeaf provides online customer experience management solutions and is the leader in customer behavior analysis. Tealeaf's CEM solutions include both a customer behavior analysis suite and customer service optimization suite. For organizations that are making customer experience a top priority, these solutions provide unprecedented enterprise-wide visibility into every visitor's unique online interactions for ongoing analysis and web site optimization. Online executive stakeholders from ebusiness and IT to customer service and compliance are leveraging Tealeaf to build a customer experience management competency across the organization. Founded in 1999, Tealeaf is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and is privately held. For more information, visit www.tealeaf.com .

The Green Sheet Inc. is now a proud affiliate of Bankcard Life, a premier community that provides industry-leading training and resources for payment professionals. Click here for more information: bankcardlife.com?orid=33533&opid=1 .

Source: Company press release.