Innotrac Shares Findings Of February ECommerce Benchmarking Study

ATLANTA, April 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Innotrac Corporation (NASDAQ: INOC), a best-of-breed commerce provider integrating digital technology, fulfillment, and contact center solutions to support global brands, today announced summary results of its latest SmartHub® e-commerce benchmark analysis, which was based on a sampling of orders placed in February of this year.

SmartHub® is Innotrac's research and strategy layer, providing clients and partners with consultative services, including end-to-end intelligence of the online retail purchase cycle.  From the pre-order site experience all the way through the final steps of the returns process, Innotrac's 56-point methodology analyzes each important customer touch point, charting retailers on everything from the checkout experience, to evaluation of the packaging material used in shipment.  SmartHub® also encompasses custom research and analysis available for current clients who are confronting the challenges of building and nurturing their eCommerce channel.

"The continued expansion of SmartHub® is reflective of our efforts to be a true strategic partner for our clients," said Jon Eggleton, Innotrac's Vice President of Marketing & eCommerce.  "They expect us to be more than just a fulfillment and contact center solutions provider, and SmartHub® is one way in which we can add more value to those relationships." 

SmartHub® evaluated 100 leading U.S. e-retailers across six different product categories in February for its latest report, SmartHub® release 2.0.  Among the findings:

• The average number of checkout pages required to complete an order was three; only 7% of merchants surveyed offered one-page checkout as an option.
• 96% of merchants surveyed were able to confirm inventory of a purchased item through customer service, however, of those who had more than one distribution channel (e.g. online plus physical stores, or catalog), only 47% of CSRs appeared to have visibility into activity happening outside of the e-commerce or direct channel.
• 65% of all merchants surveyed were able to ship packages to customers in three days or less, a slight improvement from the busy Q4 holiday season.  Merchants in the Housewares/Home category were most expedient, with 74% of orders received within three business days.
• 38% of all merchants utilized some sort of branded packaging, either inside or outside the box, up from 29% in Q4.  Health/Beauty merchants were most aggressive, with 53% utilizing branded packaging, the only category in the survey that indexed higher than 50%.

The addition of several new data points, including those pertaining to customer service, has provided additional insights not seen in previous SmartHub® releases.  Multi-channel visibility is one such area that is now being evaluated as retailers become more proficient at servicing customers who see no boundaries between online and brick-and-mortar outlets.

1 2 Next › Last »