It's all about staying ahead of the game. Businesses need to be flexible to keep up with consumer expectations and make the most of the latest tech breakthroughs. By making smart changes to how they deliver on promises to consumers, companies can bridge the digital gap. The payoff? A closer connection with customers and a leg up on the competition.
Strong relationships start with strong knowledge: understanding what your customer expects from you. So, what exactly do consumers want—and how do they feel about the current state of commerce experiences?
Are consumers satisfied with their digital commerce experiences?
Satisfaction varies across industries. Banking & Financial Services lead the pack with the highest satisfaction rate (62%) and lowest dissatisfaction (6%). On the other end of the spectrum, consumers rank transportation as the industry offering the least satisfying digital commerce experiences, with just 26% satisfaction. It’s also the industry where commerce adoption is lowest, with 44% claiming to have never used digital commerce in this space.
| Expectation | Total | Gen Z | Millennials | Gen X | Baby Boomers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seamless, quicker check-out options with fewer touchpoints | 54% | 61% | 59% | 51% | 48% |
| Brand product/service offerings available wherever I choose | 40% | 52% | 48% | 38% | 27% |
| Intuitive, conversational, connected search features | 40% | 52% | 50% | 37% | 28% |
| More opportunities for cashierless transactions | 34% | 51% | 46% | 29% | 21% |
| More personalized recommendations in real-time | 33% | 46% | 41% | 29% | 23% |
| Interactive content making transactions entertaining | 27% | 45% | 37% | 23% | 14% |
| Conversational assistants as agents | 25% | 42% | 34% | 21% | 12% |
While demand for personalization and efficiency is widespread, it varies across age groups and regions. Millennials and Gen Z are leading the charge, expecting high levels of personalization and seamless interactions. As digital natives, they’re comfortable navigating online spaces and have come to expect instantaneous service and tailored engagement. Older consumers, while still valuing these aspects, may not prioritize them and often emphasize the importance of clear and accessible information over flashy, hyper-personalized engagements.
| Expectation | Australia | France | Germany | UK | US |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seamless, quicker check-out options | 60% | 43% | 45% | 59% | 64% |
| Brand offerings available wherever I choose | 46% | 42% | 33% | 37% | 49% |
| Intuitive, conversational, connected search | 47% | 35% | 38% | 39% | 44% |
| Cashierless transactions | 42% | 27% | 33% | 31% | 42% |
| Real-time personalized recommendations | 43% | 35% | 28% | 29% | 40% |
| Entertaining interactive content | 34% | 28% | 25% | 24% | 33% |
| Conversational assistants as agents | 32% | 26% | 24% | 19% | 31% |
Where do consumers choose to shop—and why? Whether a consumer decides to shop on a brand website or through an e-commerce marketplace like Amazon or eBay often comes down to two factors: cost and trust.
Understanding these preferences is not just about meeting current expectations but also anticipating future trends.
New technology comes and goes, but one problem persists: Consumers continue to face obstacles while completing their digital transactions. Past is prologue, so what consumers have already experienced sets their expectations for future engagements—for better or for worse. In the United States, consumers have reported a decline in customer experience quality. In 2024, it hit historic lows when Forrester’s Customer Experience (CX) Index reached 69.3, the lowest point since the index began in 2016.
Every friction point provides a new reason for consumers to abandon their carts. To help consumers complete their transactions, reduce their obstacles.
Site and app performance issues, cited by 29% of consumers, round out the top three frustrations. Younger consumers are particularly sensitive to these issues, with a lower tolerance for technology failures that interrupt their online shopping experience.
The friction that consumers experience in their digital transactions has a hidden cost: It shapes what they expect from digital engagements. Improving expectations means improving these engagements. “Focus on the basics,” says Jon Panella, Group Vice President—Global Commerce Lead at Publicis Sapient. This means optimizing site performance and ensuring a user-friendly experience—slow load times and clunky navigation can easily frustrate users and prompt them to abandon their transactions. Strive for responsive and intuitive sites and platforms.
By enhancing customer service—whether through AI-powered chatbots or intuitive, natural-language FAQs—businesses should have tools ready to address consumer concerns, turning potentially negative interactions into opportunities for engagement and trust-building.
Addressing data privacy concerns requires a commitment to transparency and security. By clarifying your data policies, offering consumers choices about data sharing, and implementing robust security measures, you can alleviate consumer fears and establish a foundation of trust. Regular updates and communication about these policies can help foster long-term confidence.
Additionally, consider tailoring your strategies to meet regional and demographic needs.
As digital commerce expands its reach, artificial intelligence (AI) has quickly become an essential tool in supporting and enabling customer behaviors. Businesses may be keen to adopt it—but what about consumers? Can they see what AI can bring to the table for them?
There is a clear generational divide in the adoption and appreciation of AI-driven features. While Millennials and Gen Z enthusiastically embrace AI, older demographics tend to be more cautious. Only about 24% of consumers globally find conversational assistants helpful in making purchase decisions.
Businesses shouldn’t adopt AI just for the sake of it—it should fill a consumer need. By aligning the power of AI with clear consumer benefits, you can transform it from novelty tech into a tool that provides actual value to consumer transactions and enhances satisfaction.
Since customer service issues remain the top pain for consumers, AI could help answer a relatively simple question: “When a customer has a problem, how do you solve it more efficiently?” AI-powered solutions, such as chatbots to handle common queries or resolve issues swiftly, can enable companies to directly address consumer needs. AI today can be very efficient at dealing with refunds, appeasements, returns, and replacements. It can also help with recommendations that could inform customers if an item tends to run small or if they should consider a different size, proactively addressing common customer complaints.
Data. It’s everywhere—and it’s everything. Consumers share it to join loyalty programs, and you leverage it to create personalized experiences. Because data is so valuable, you must protect it, not only to prevent data breaches but also to gain your customers’ trust.
In 2023, Publicis Sapient research found that 80% of respondents surveyed in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States were “extremely/very/somewhat” concerned with companies using their data.
When asked which incentives would encourage them to create a customer profile by sharing personal information rather than checking out as a guest, respondents ranked the following:
Data from over 422 million global user accounts was exposed, representing a 14% year-over-year increase.
You need the right data.
It’s clear that digital engagements don’t always meet consumers’ needs. Here’s what you can do about it:
By integrating these steps into their strategic framework, businesses can bridge the digital disconnect and significantly improve commerce engagements.
Through a global survey of 7,562 nationally representative consumers in Australia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States, we investigated what consumers value in their digital commerce experiences. These insights are intended to help businesses evolve their digital commerce offerings to keep customers, attract new business, build revenue, drive loyalty, and foster customer lifetime value. The survey was fielded between January 7 and 23, 2025.
Let’s talk about how to apply these findings to your business.
Jon Panella
Group Vice President—Global Commerce Lead
Publicis Sapient
jon.panella@publicissapient.com