- The study assessed online wine retailers through "mystery shopping" to evaluate website design, navigation, responsiveness, and customer service. - Findings showed that while most websites had adequate design and full e-commerce functionality, many lacked excellent navigation and failed to promptly and fully respond to customer inquiries. - Retailers that impressed shoppers provided prompt, knowledgeable, and personalized responses that addressed customers' questions and offered recommendations.

1. Wine-Searcher Online Mystery Shopping 2008 Findings and Conclusions Wine Intelligence July 2008 Presented by Adon Kumar General Manager Wine-Searcher Assisted by Richard Halstead COO - Wine Intelligence

7. Methodology Mystery Shop 1 Sample Selection Data Collation Data Entry Presentation Reporting Mystery Shop 2 Your website may have been part of this study!

10. Website design Navigation and ease of use On the whole, website design and ease of use was considered to be satisfactory rather than excellent in terms of online best practice

12. Website design E-commerce functionality Nearly all websites feature full e-commerce functionality allowing consumers to make direct online purchases

14. Retailer responsiveness Email correspondence It was not always easy for shoppers to find a contact email address to use when making their enquiry … .there are a number of different addresses that could all potentially be relevant, without it being clear which…is the most relevant to use. - Mystery shopper 67% Easy to find email contact details 21% Difficult to find email contact details

15. Retailer responsiveness Email correspondence The vast majority of contact email addresses provided on retailers’ websites were current and correct 94% No Problems in sending Enquiry email One shop with “mail box full” On both iterations No Bounce –back emails

16. Retailer responsiveness Email correspondence Few retailers made use of acknowledgement emails as an initial response to shoppers’ emails 14% of shoppers received an automatic acknowledgement email Most of these automatic acknowledgement emails arrived within 24 hours

17. Retailer responsiveness Email correspondence A considerable number of retailers failed to respond at all to shoppers’ email enquiries Very surprised that I did not receive a response from this retailer. I did check [my] junk mail etc as well… - Mystery shopper Responded to Email Enquiries Did Not Respond to Email Enquiries

20. Retailer responsiveness Responses to specific email enquiries Where specific replies to shoppers’ enquiries were received, the quality of the responses in terms of content was generally very high

27. Overall impressions Shoppers’ overall impressions were very mixed There are currently two polarised groups of retailers Outstanding “ Beacon” Retailers 17% of sample Disappointed Shoppers 28% of sample Exceptional online offerings & customer service Exceeding customer expectations in all facets of the interaction Falling short in basic customer service Disappointing customer experience

29. Conclusions