Retailers have spent years making shopping faster and more convenient. Delivery times have shrunk, search has improved and recommendations have become more personalized. Yet Alter Agents’ latest consumer research found that fewer Americans describe shopping as easy today than when we first asked the question in 2019.

In her latest article for Retail Touchpoints, our Chief Strategy Officer Devora Rogers looks at what may be making shopping feel harder even as the mechanics of buying have become easier.

Shoppers have become researchers

Alter Agents has tracked the sources consumers use when making purchases for years. That list has continued to grow. Even for everyday categories such as coffee and household cleaning products, shoppers regularly consult a dozen or more sources before buying.

They also use those sources differently. Search may help someone understand a category, while reviews offer experiences from other buyers. Videos show products in use. Retailer sites make comparisons easier. Coupons and apps often become more relevant as the shopper gets closer to buying.

AI has now joined that mix. A shopper might move among search results, retailer websites, creator videos, reviews and an AI-generated summary before deciding what to buy.

All of those sources give consumers more information. They also give them more information to evaluate.

Four in 10 shoppers have walked away

One finding from the latest Alter Agents Consumer Sentiment Study puts the problem into perspective: four in 10 Americans said they have left a retailer’s website because the number of choices became overwhelming.

Devora shares an interesting detail about that finding in the article. The team had considered dropping a long-running question about whether shopping feels easy because the results had been so consistent over the years. Keeping it revealed something worth examining: fewer Americans now describe shopping as easy than they did in 2019.

That raises questions about how retailers measure convenience. Shipping speed, clicks, conversions and time on page can show what shoppers did, but they don’t necessarily show how much work went into making the decision.

Two people can spend five minutes on the same product page for completely different reasons. One may have found exactly what they want and be checking a few specifications. Another may be sorting through similar products and still wondering which one to choose.

Measuring the effort behind the purchase

Understanding that distinction can help retailers identify where people are getting stuck. Shopper research can show when consumers leave a retailer’s site to verify information elsewhere, which sources they rely on at different points and where comparisons start becoming difficult.

Those answers will vary by category and purchase. A shopper choosing coffee has a different set of questions than someone buying a television or booking a hotel. The common thread is the amount of information now available to inform even relatively ordinary decisions.

As Devora writes, retailers have become very good at measuring how commerce functions. There is another question worth adding to the list: Where does shopping start to feel like work?

Read Devora’s full article, “When Convenience Stops Feeling Convenient,” on Retail Touchpoints: https://www.retailtouchpoints.com/executive-viewpoints/when-convenience-stops-feeling-convenient/620821/