Top online stores in Germany? No Amazon!

For the fourth time ECC Köln has examined what the top online stores in Germany are from a customer perspective. The biggest surprise is the absence of Amazon in the top 10. It’s not that Amazon performed badly, it’s more like other online retailers have stepped up their game and surpassed the American retailer on the list.

The study [PDF] was conducted by ECC Köln in collaboration with Hermes, SAP and Otto Group’s payment solution Yapital. It surveyed more than 10,000 online shoppers and asked them about their buying behavior.

Consumers from a little more than a hundred (105) online stores in Germany answered several questions about factors such as website design, usability, service, payment and checkout options, shipping and delivery. The study results show that German consumers have high demands for online stores, practically on all criteria. But the climbers this year, in the top 10 of most important criteria, are an “uncluttered shopping basket” and a “product range that’s big enough”.

Trust is an extremely relevant topic
“Likewise, trust is an extremely relevant topic across all success factors”, ECC Köln writes. “For example, in payments, delivery process, the overview of homepages and product pages as well as the findability of information (about shipping options, payments options or the ordering process).”

ECC Köln states it’s important to give consumers a good first impression of your website. “Whether it’s on the home page, on a product page or elsewhere. It’s decisive for the probability of completing a purchase.”