iPerceptions - Customer Satisfaction Measurement

New York, NY – October 16, 2009 – iPerceptions, Inc. (TSX.V:IPE), a leading provider of Voice of Customer web analytics, today issued its E-Commerce Industry Report Q2 2009. The report analyzes real-time feedback from over 360,000 visitors in order to identify the most important site issues and trends facing the retail industry as it prepares for the Holiday 2009 shopping season. With more than 88% of Americans planning to shop online in the upcoming holiday months (Shop.org, October 2009), the new report gives online retailers timely intelligence and directional guidance on optimizing the online experience, providing:

• Specific insight into who is coming to retail sites, why they are there (buy, learn, support, etc.), and which marketing and advertising channels are most effective at delivering site traffic;

• Detailed information on the greatest hurdles to buying online, as reported by customers themselves;

• An introduction to the iPSI (iPerceptions Satisfaction Index) and new benchmark data on retail customer satisfaction, both overall and broken down by 10 key attributes such as relevancy, convenience, and ease of use.

Key findings from the study include the need for online retailers [and e-commerce merchants] to optimize their purchase funnels by addressing their website visitors’ intent.  The report found that 38% of shoppers visit retail sites in order to gather information about products and brands.  Shoppers in this “learn” mode are generally quite satisfied (75%) and able to complete their research tasks (85%).

However, there is considerable drop-off in task completion from the learning phase to the buying phase of the funnel. Only 61% of would-be buyers indicate that they were able to make a purchase on the site. Further analysis reveals that, while a large share of visitors simply didn’t find what they wanted (34%), visitors indicated that site navigation and usability is as much of a barrier to purchase as is a product’s price (13%).

“A 61% task completion rate means that 39% of your buyers are walking away, and a retailer with $50 million per year in online sales is losing $18 million in business,” said iPerceptions President and CEO Claude Guay.  “By structuring their sites so that visitors can look for - and find - crucial decision-making information, companies can remove a major hurdle responsible for caus¬ing would-be purchasers to eventually abandon the process altogether. This is extraordinarily valuable information for online retailers as we move into the holidays, and something that should really make marketers stand up and take notice.”

Data contained in the E-Commerce Industry Report for Q2 2009 represents aggregated information obtained from enterprise solution webValidator™ and free 4Q studies deployed on the web sites of leading retail and e-commerce brands. This industry specific database aggregates data from more than 360,000 visitors. The full report can be found on the iPerceptions website at: http://www.iperceptions.com/en/resource-center 

About the iPerceptions Satisfaction (iPSI) Index

The iPerceptions Satisfaction Index (iPSI) is derived from over 60 million satisfaction and experience datapoints obtained from over four million actual website visitors in the context of their actual site visits. The iPSI covers ten verticals, including automotive, travel, and e-commerce. The iPSI features a perceptual framework to isolate and evaluate key elements of the visitor experience and predictive algorithms and modeling to uncover the attributes with the greatest impact on satisfaction. As a result, the iPerceptions Satisfaction Index (iPSI) delivers the clearest and most accurate understanding of the key issues impacting satisfaction, intent, task completion and customer loyalty. 

About iPerceptions

iPerceptions is one of North America's leading Voice of the Customer web analytics providers. Its webValidator Continuous Listening solution, free website survey solution 4Q, and proprietary iPerceptions Satisfaction Index (iPSI) turn thousands of data points into easy-to-understand strategic and tactical decision support for website marketers. iPerceptions' clients include such well-known brands as InterContinental Hotels, General Motors, Dell, Hyundai, LG Electronics, Choice Hotels International, BMW and Monster Worldwide. iPerceptions has offices in New York, Atlanta, Toronto, Montreal and London.

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