Case Study

Google European Retail Research

Pattern conducted a European retail research project to identify customer experience best practice among the continent’s retailers for Google.

LOCATION

Europe

WHEN

2019

SIZE

223 Retailers

COUNTRIES

10 European Countries

Key Challenges

Google is the world’s most-used search engine and is one of the four top-ranking companies worldwide. Following from the success of our first European retail research project done with Google, Pattern worked with the company on a second piece of benchmarking research to identify customer experience best practice among the continent’s retailers.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Google wanted to evaluate the customer experience across their retailers in Europe.

RESEARCH

Google wanted to conduct research in the European market to evaluate their customer experience.

PATTERN

Our Approach

In 2019, Pattern evaluated the customer experience delivered by 223 retailers across 10 European countries, namely: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. A scoring methodology for the European retail research was jointly agreed between Pattern and Google to assess key aspects of the retail experience such as customer service, mobile website usability, and store visits. Retailers were grouped into four categories based on their score: Leaders, Followers, Majority, and Latecomers. During the course of the 136-day long project, Pattern proofed almost 28,000 data points, spent 1,113 minutes on the phone with customer services and walked 308 km during store visits.

Results

Less than 20% of retailers were scored as Leaders, with the UK, France, and the Netherlands coming out on top. Spain and Norway had the most amount of Latecomers. Key criteria, such as the inter-channel shopper journey, in-store technology, and a clear click-and-collect proposition were identified as vital things retailers must do to ensure they deliver a great customer experience. The information from this European retail research was shared with retailers individually and was also presented at Google events in London and Amsterdam. These conclusions have also been published on the Think With Google blog.

RESEARCH PUBLISHED

Pattern’s research for Google was also published on their blog, Think With Google.

KEY CRITERIA IDENTIFIED

Inter-channel shopper journey, in-store technology, and a clear click-and-collect proposition identified as essential to create a great customer experience.

RESEARCH PRESENTED AT EVENTS

The information gathered by Pattern was shared at Google events in London and Amsterdam.

RETAILERS SCORED

20% of Retailers were scored as Leaders. The UK, France, and the Netherlands came out on top in customer experience.

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