In Australia, apparel retailers face incredibly challenging conditions, not helped by the emphasis that global online retailers from other countries are placing on this market. To test whether online retailers in Australia have the functions required to effectively compete, Forrester studied Birdsnest, EziBuy, Myer, Sportsgirl, and Supré using its Website Functionality Benchmark method.
None of the five tested online retailers received passing scores, showing significant shortcomings in every area from customer service to multichannel strategy. Forrester’s methodoly examines 65 individual content and functionality criteria that measure a site’s capabilities to support users during the typical customer purchase path. The criteria are divided into six categories that represent areas required by ecommerce sites to effectively support users’ needs for informational, product selection, purchase, and service purposes.
For each of the 65 criteria, retailers’ websites received a grade of -2 (severe failure), -1 (failure), 1 (pass), or 2 (best practice). The criteria within each category are aggregated to offer a score representing quality of the functional implementation for a specific area (e.g., navigation and search, customer support). A final retailer score is produced by adding the results of each macro area together. Total scores could range from -130 to 130, and passing all tests would result in a grade of 65 or higher.
Overall scores were very disappointing, with none of the five online retailers receiving an overall passing score of 65 (or of 58 for an online-only retailer). This means that at the time of testing, none were providing much of the functionality that Forrester advocates, which could be the reason why many are so aware of the competition from overseas online retailers. Note: All five tested websites are in constant development and Forrester has noted positive changes to platforms since its review.
