E-Commerce – Audit of product & packaging quality.

We worked with a large FMCG multinational to measure the consumers’ quality experience in the e-commerce channel in the US.

 

Business Challenge
A large FMCG company sought to take a proactive and consumer-centric approach to measuring the quality of experience with their products in the E-Commerce Channel. Previous research conducted by Eolas on behalf of the client had found that up to 1/3 of their products distributed via the e-commerce channel arrived to the consumer with notable defects. Before they could begin addressing potential quality issues, they needed to better understand the defect impact upon brand equity so that they could direct internal efforts and resources.

Project Challenge
The challenge was to understand the full incidence and extent of issues for those products purchased online and how this impacted consumer experience and repurchase intent. Given the high incidence rate of defects noted in previous studies, the client wanted to understand experience at each e-commerce touchpoint and in particular, explore what truly matters to their shopper with regards to the quality of experience for primary and secondary packaging upon delivery.

How did we help? We developed a bespoke E-Commerce Experience program, evaluating 9 products sold through one major E-Commerce website in the US. We recruited 100 consumers to each purchase 6 of these products which resulted in a robust sample for analysis.
Having taken delivery of these products, consumers used the Eolas mobile app to complete an assessment of the 6 products that they received. The assessment survey for each product explored the following touchpoints: Delivery information, Secondary packaging, Protective packaging, Product Primary packaging and product quality.

What was the impact on the business? By proactively engaging with real consumers our client was able to understand which defects were driving negative consumer experience with their online purchases.
Most importantly they were able to understand the role that different types of primary and secondary packaging was having on preventing or causing these defects. As a result they were able to rectify the issues with certain packaging types to ensure that their products would consistently delight their consumers in the e-commerce channel.