Not too long ago, before e-commerce went mainstream, shoppers’ choices were limited to the stores that were within a comfortable geographic radius from them. If the closest store didn’t have the desired product in stock, a shopper might have visited a couple other nearby stores. Perhaps they did that anyway to ensure that they were getting the best price. Regardless, the competitive landscape was dramatically smaller than it is today.

Nowadays, a global marketplace is at our fingertips. Retailers can no longer compete on price or location alone because they are no longer competing against a couple local merchants – they’re up against the whole world! If the sneakers your son is longing for are too expensive at the local mall, you can likely order them from eBay or another website, possibly even from the other side of the planet. That’s why customer experience has evolved to become the most important competitive differentiator. Shoppers will often justify spending a bit more if it means that they’ll get instant gratification and an easy, enjoyable experience.

Retailers need to scrutinize every element that makes up the shopping experience – before, during, and after the sale, to ensure that it meets the demands of today’s shoppers and goes above and beyond the competition. Here are 20 fresh statistics that reinforce the importance of designing and delivering a standout customer experience:

Retailers Stand to Lose Big by Failing to Focus on the Customer Experience

1. 32 percent of customers say that they would stop doing business with a brand they loved after a single bad experience. (PwC)
2. 64 percent of consumers say they have avoided a brand because of a bad experience they had within the last year. (Medallia/Ipsos)
3. A moderate improvement in customer experience generates an average revenue increase of $823 million over three years for a company with $1 billion in annual revenues. (Temkin Group)
4. Organizations with a cross-functional customer experience approach were nearly twice as likely to have exceeded their top business goals last year. (CMO)
5. 80 percent of brands say their success will soon be mostly or entirely dependent on customer experience, but fewer than half actually have a strategy in place to measure how CX drives ROI. (Gartner)
6. 51% of consumers will stop shopping at a retailer after 1-2 poor in-store shopping trips. (BRP)

Shoppers Are Clear About What They Want – Retailers Just Need to Listen and Execute

7. 59 percent of all consumers feel that companies have lost touch with the human element of customer experience. 82 percent want more human interaction with brands. (PwC)
8. 78 percent of consumers say that an enjoyable in-store atmosphere is a key factor in choosing physical stores over e-commerce. (Mood Media)
9. “The ability to touch, feel, and try the product” is what shoppers like most about shopping in physical stores. (Mood Media)

There is Still Work to be Done When it Comes to Omni-channel Experiences

10. A mere 7 percent of retailers offer “start the sale anywhere, finish the sale anywhere” capabilities today. (BRP)
11. Brands with the strongest omnichannel customer engagement retain approximately 89 percent of their customers, in comparison to 33 percent of brands with a weaker omnichannel strategy. (Aberdeen)
12. More than 80 percent of consumers report having run into inefficient or malfunctioning tech while shopping or dining. (eMarketer)
13. A majority of retailers (55 percent) have now implemented online visibility into in-store inventory, up from a mere 40 percent last year. (eMarketer)

Stock Availability is a Critical and Often Overlooked Component of the Customer Experience

14. Retailers are missing out on nearly $1 trillion in sales because they fail to have the right stock available in the right place, at the right time. (IHL)
15. Shoppers encounter out-of-stocks in as often as one in three shopping trips. (IHL)
16. Over 20 percent of Amazon’s North American Retail revenue can be attributed to consumers who first tried to buy the product at a local store but found it out-of-stock. (IHL)
17. Reducing costs and enhancing the customer experience were the top reasons behind supply chain innovation according to executives. (eMarketer)

Human Interaction is a Key Element that Makes or Breaks the Customer Experience

18. 74 percent of internet users said that a disappointing interaction with staff—whether it’s a poor attitude or lack of knowledge—is a leading reason why they would consider a brand experience as a negative one. (eMarketer)
19. 80 percent of American consumers say that speed, convenience, knowledgeable help, and friendly service are the most important elements of a positive customer experience. (PwC)
20. 46 percent of shoppers said they would prefer interacting with a human even if a chatbot saved them 10 minutes. (eMarketer)