+30 % transactions in the consumer goods sector, customer concerns about deliveries

Since February 22nd, when the coronavirus became a global threat, iAdvize, the conversational platform, has tracked close to 10 million transactions and more than 14 million messages between customers and over 2000 brands worldwide. The analysis of this data has led us to set up monitoring tools to watch sectorial trends and keep decision-makers informed of the latest developments. We bring you the second edition today.

Our stats confirm a sharp increase in home delivery services. In the food industry, the platform has registered a 173% increase in transactions over the last 30 days (compared to the previous 30 days). This increase is due to an exceptional spike in transactions on March 16th (more than 61,000 transactions that day). The global level remains very high during that entire week.

Tourism and transport
In the tourism & transport sector, it’s no surprise that transactions have dramatically slowed down: we have registered a 41% decrease in visits and a 55% decrease in transactions compared to the previous week.

From March 16th to 22nd:

Messaging in the consumer goods sector remains intense, with a 54% increase in conversations on our iAdvize platform compared to the previous week and a 12.5% conversion rate after a conversation.

The tourism & transport sector has seen a decrease in conversation volumes. More than 27,000 conversations have been registered from March 16th to 22nd, which represents a 52% decrease in conversations compared to the previous week. This trend can be explained by the global decrease in visits (-10%) but also by the fact that online customer service assistants are less available (-29%), despite an increasing click rate (1.15% compared to 0.75% the previous week). The conversion rate remains stable at 4.3%, only a 0.1 point decrease compared to the previous week.

In the services sector, exchanges are slowing down with -24% conversations compared to the previous week. This global decrease in traffic (-16%) combined with the decrease in online agent availability (-10%) explains this trend. The conversion rate after a conversation remains stable at 3.4%.

“Will it be delivered as usual?”, “How can I cancel my order?”… Since new restrictions on daily life have been enforced, online customer queries regarding deliveries have doubled. 14% of the conversations on the iAdvize platform were about deliveries entre March 13th and 19th, compared to 6.7% the previous week.
An acceleration has been noted, all sectors considered, since March 16th.

2.3% of conversations are about both deliveries and the coronavirus, which represents 25% of all the conversations related to the coronavirus – compared to 17% in the previous period which already had seen a strong increase in coronavirus-related conversations.

In the Consumer Goods sector, of all conversations about deliveries, 3.6% were about delays and 7.7% about cancellations, which is a 20% increase compared to the previous period.

In the most notable progressions, we now have 5 times more conversations relating to deliveries in the DIY sector, 3 times more conversations relating to this subject in the high-tech sector and +160% in the cultural and leisure sector.

The keywords “refund” and “cancellation” are present in 7% of conversations in the tourism sector these past few days, which is 5 times more than back in late January.

“Non-essential” businesses have had to close their shops in many countries.

One of our clients in the sports retail industry has been using its in-store staff to test the iAdvize application since 2019.

• In mid-march, just before it was announced that brands would close their shops, stores were already emptier than usual as they received fewer visitors.
• Meanwhile, our client’s website visits and activity saw a drastic increase.
• To handle this increase, 400 sales staff were redeployed on their online customer service with iAdvize and they could work from home on desktop or mobile.
• They help online brand advisers who are also working remotely.
• The volume of conversations was multiplied by 10 between March 2nd and 16th.

On March 16th, up to 219 sales staff were connected on the platform throughout the day. That same day, they handled 5690 conversations, which is 10 times more than at the beginning of March. Their advice has increased the average order value after a conversation by 61% despite -23% page views and a decrease in website visits.