How do retailers make you stop shopping?

Our  Holiday 2013: Top Trends to Watch survey findings add to the growing industry evidence that shoppers will make purchasing decisions leveraging multiple channels this season. In fact, 66 percent of Americans said that they will order online and ship to home or offices - and 25 percent noted that they will order online and pick up at stores.

The survey further reveals that it will take an average of 2.2 negative shopping experiences for Americans to stop purchasing from a retail brand – across any channel. More than two-thirds of Americans (68 percent) agree that a negative shopping experience within a single channel negatively impacts their perception across all shopping channels including physical stores, online, mobile, phone centers, and catalog.

In the wake of the controversy in the US about Thanksgiving Day openings, it's also interesting to reflect on these data points from the survey:

• Regarding factors that contribute to positive shopping experiences across all channels, the top three as identified by American consumers as being at least somewhat important are: inventory availability (98 percent); speed of delivery and pick up (96 percent); and sales associate interaction (90 percent).
• Interestingly, 79 percent of Americans who shop in stores believe that interaction with knowledgeable, friendly sales associates while shopping, picking up an online order, or even returning an item, are at least somewhat likely to make them purchase an additional item, beyond their original intended reason for going to the store.

Those employee interactions still matter very much to driving top line revenue.  It will be interesting to see how well retailers are able to balance revenues vs. employee morale as the trend to staying open on holidays continues.