By Nikki Gilliland

This week’s roundup includes lots of interesting stats.

Even if we do say so ourselves.

Read on for news about retail sales, customer experience, app installs, and more. Head on over to the Internet Statistics Database while you’re at it, too.

47% of consumers are blocking ads

In a survey of 93,803 internet users aged 16 to 64, GlobalWebIndex has foundthat 47% of global internet users use an ad blocker today.

APAC narrowly leads in ad blocking, with 50% of respondents in this region having used an ad blocker to stop ads in the past month. Adoption in Europe has remained static at 40% since 2017.

In terms of the top motivations for ad blocking, 48% say it is because there are far too many ads, while 47% say it is because ads are annoying or intrusive.

Interestingly, the survey found that ad blocking doesn’t cause major shifts in how people discover brands. Instead, those that use ad blockers cite social media, review sites and mobile apps as the biggest sources of brand discovery.

53% of Next sales are made online

It’s been reported that annual sales for UK retailer Next have continued to fall, while its online business has grown.

Despite recent investment in its high street presence, sales in Next’s stores fell nearly 8% last year to £1.95bn, while online sales rose by 14.7% to £1.92bn. According to Next, 53% of its sales are now made online, with online profits jumping nearly 14% in 2018.  This is in contrast to offline performance, where annual profits at its high street stores fell by just over 20%.

Despite this, Next insists that its stores are an integral part of business, stating that more than half of online orders were delivered to stores last year, while more than 80% of returns were also made through stores.

29% of TV ads not ‘viewable’

Finally, a new study from IPG Media Lab has revealed that 29% of TV adverts are not actually seen by viewers. AdAge has reported on the study (in partnership with TVision), which involved the analysis of six months of TV viewing behaviour.

The study found that 29% TV ad deliveries are not ‘viewable’, meaning that nobody is in the room for at least two seconds while the ad is airing. In comparison to this, 31% of digital video was classed as not viewable.

There are a number of factors that affect TV viewability, including ad length, position in the pod, time of day, and advertiser.

20% of marketers ‘will never truly understand’ customer buying decisions

A new report from Clicktale has revealed that brands are still struggling to get to grips with customer experience. In a survey of over 200 marketing professionals, 20% of respondents said they feel they will “never truly understand” their customers’ buying decisions.

The report states that the reason for this is because 34% of respondents are unable to unite data between their web and mobile-optimised sites to create a single customer view, while 39% struggle to unite data from their websites and mobile apps.

This inability also means that 71% of brands can’t action customer insights in real time, while 73% are struggling to provide a consistent experience across channels. Ultimately, this lack of ability to understand customers is hindering brands’ chances of securing customer loyalty as well as damaging potential sales.

Just 20% of fashion retailers share customer reviews and product ratings

New research from Fresh Relevance has revealed that retailers are at risk of losing sales by failing to provide product ratings and review information consistently.

In a survey of 2,000 UK consumers and 50 top retailers, 61% of UK respondents said they base their purchase considerations on detailed reviews from other customers and 56% on product star ratings. However, just 20% of the fashion retailers surveyed are actually providing this information.

Just half of footwear brands surveyed provide star ratings and customer reviews, and 60% of jewellery, accessories, and electronics brands currently share these details on their websites.

Interestingly, beauty brands are leading the way in meeting customer expectations, with 100% of those surveyed providing ratings and reviews information.

UK ecommerce sites lag behind US and Germany for customer satisfaction and functionality 

For its recent Retail Report, Applause tested more than 50 top global retail ecommerce sites from Black Friday to 31st December 2018. Experts also went through an omnichannel journey in the US, UK, and Germany to compare the experiences of each country creating a global ranking of customer satisfaction.

Overall, Applause identified more than 3,000 software bugs and user experience issues as part of the research, many of which impacted retail revenues during 2018’s ‘golden quarter’.

The results found that the UK ranks weakest across the board, generating the highest total bug count, accounting for 45% of all bugs found. This is followed by the US at 32%, and Germany at 23%. 

Each country was given a score based on the user experience provided and overall functional maturity of the websites analysed. The US led the way scoring 7.8, Germany followed with a score of 7.4, while the UK scored lower with just 6.6.