A new report by online market research firm eDigital Research provides some interesting insights into the performance of merchants’ web sites over the past seven years. Among its findings is evidence of the impressive progress multi-channel retailers have made in catching up with their pure-play rivals. But as experts point out, many online merchants are still failing in areas such as customer service and delivery.

The latest E-retail Benchmark Study is based on feedback from more than 10,000 profiled internet users who are signed up by eDigital to test web sites using its eMysteryShopper market research tool.

The research found that all sites have improved significantly since eDigital published its first report in 2000, when eight per cent of the sample sites were not even available. However, user expectations are rising too, according to eDigital co-founder Chris Russell.

“Increasingly, sites are less individualistic with more organised processes,” Russell said. “Users are becoming more experienced and sophisticated ­ in about 2005 the consumer realised he or she could take control.”

Home pages have also undergone a sea change, becoming clearer and better structured. EDigital’s retail research manager, Steve Brockway, argued that companies are realising the home page should be more like a shop window than a selling tool.

“There used to be an obsession with being able to get everywhere in the site from the home page,” Brockway explained. “But people are realising you don’t have to convert off the home page now ­ it should tell customers what you’re about.”

According to eDigital, multi-channel players are catching up with the pure-play merchants. In the first few years of the research, pure-play retailers dominated the top of the league tables, but while this is no longer the case, online-only stores like Play.com are still innovating and taking market share from the multi-channel players.

However, although the growth of “multi-channel consumers” over the past seven years has forced e-retailers to ensure their web channels reflect the brand identity and there is seamless support between the channels, customer expectations are not being fulfilled by all, said Russell.

Play.com and Amazon dominated the top of the league tables, which the report split into categories such as first impressions, range of goods, search, shopping basket and delivery. John Lewis, Marks & Spencer and Tesco came just behind these, reflecting the growing online competence of high street retailers.

But customer service can still be poor, in particular email responses to enquiries, said Russell. “Argos, for example, gated its email responses before Christmas,” he explained. “Consumers expect a reply pretty much within 24 hours now, but this is still an issue for some retailers.”

Search was another area in which many merchants were found wanting, as they “failed to meet the Googleisation of expectations”, Russell explained.

Availability of stock is also often an issue for customers, according to independent retail consultant Jane Rome. “Often you will get to the end of the checkout process without knowing that some of the stock is not available ­ the best sites would warn you,” she said. “Supply chain management is critical because customers don’t have much loyalty ­ if they’re frustrated a couple of times they’ll go and not return.”

Rome argued that delivery can often be below par when ordering online, ruining the whole experience for the customer, and she called for merchants to provide greater flexibility in delivery time options.

“The opportunity for things to go wrong at the end is still huge,” Rome added. “And if the product does have something wrong with it, it should be easy to return.”

Companies should also ensure that they have a dedicated helpline for any customer complaints or enquiries, with properly trained staff, although many fail in this department, Rome said.

“It’s critical that customers have the ability to speak to someone when something goes wrong,” Rome argued. “Online merchants have an opportunity to be better than the rest here because at the moment it’s done so badly.”