Hong Kong's e-tailers are struggling to keep pace with the SAR's
shoppers, as spenders are becoming intensely dissatisfied with their
online purchases, according to a survey by ACNielsen.
The researcher surveyed 1,000 people in the SAR and found "very
satisfied" and "quite satisfied" shoppers fell from 87 per cent in
January to 64 per cent in August this year.
The number of online shoppers during that period held steady at 5 per
cent.
The figure of disappointed shoppers, which cited slow or non-existent
delivery, was at 77 per cent. Meanwhile, 37 per cent of shoppers failed
to receive the goods ordered.
Industry analysts attributed the poor performance to an ineffective
delivery infrastructure and convenient access to retail outlets.
Other complaints by Hong Kong's online shoppers included the inability
to see products before making a purchase at 23 per cent, failure to
accept returned goods at 11 per cent and comparatively high prices at
eight per cent.
The most popular goods, according to ACNielsen, were groceries.
Almost 50 per cent of the people shopping online in August bought food
or household items in the previous 12 months, up from 20 per cent in
January.
The survey found surfers shopped online for groceries at least once
every two weeks, pushing average annual online spending up 30 per cent
to HK$3,600 per customer, equating to a market sales value of
over HK$800 million.
Johnny Tsin, senior consultant, ACNielsen.online Hong Kong, said:
"Putting it into context, 1999 retail sales in Hong Kong were about
HK$180 billion, so there's still a long way to go before we
realise the potential for business to consumer e-commerce.
"But if current dissatisfaction levels are an indicator, as demand for
e-shopping grows online, retailers are going to be under tremendous
pressure to deliver the goods and meet the growing expectations of our
online shoppers."
