Almost half (45 per cent) of UK Millennials are less loyal to retail brands than they were a year ago, according to Brightpearl.

The retail operations platform surveyed 4,000 consumers and canvassed the opinions of 200 retailers in the UK and US, finding that those aged between 23 and 38 years-old are the least loyal consumers.

In addition, over one third of shoppers across all age ranges are quicker to abandon a brand that doesn't meet expectations than they were a year ago – indicating that lifetime customers are a thing of the past.

Nearly seven in ten shoppers across all age ranges (69 per cent) also told researchers that if a shopping experience was poor, they would never shop with the same online store again – and a quarter of Millennials would change where they buy goods from based on the shopping experience.

One in five respondents in the 18 to 24 age bracket - rising to almost half in the 25 to 34 age group - agreed that they are always looking for an improved shopping experience when buying goods online.

Brightpearl's study also looked closely at the most common buying inconveniences that frustrate online shoppers, revealing that struggling to find products and needing to register to buy, as well as unsuitable payment and delivery options, proved to be frequent turn-offs.

However, the biggest gripes for shoppers relate to delivery and returns. In the past year, 60 per cent of consumers said they’ve bought goods that have not arrived when expected, while 40 per cent of shoppers have experienced items not arriving at all.

“Brands that sell directly to consumers but don’t own a seamless end-to-end buying journey are setting themselves up for failure,” says Derek O’Carroll, chief executive of Brightpearl. “Shoppers no longer have the patience for unsatisfactory shopping experiences – which, unfortunately, are very common.”

“Taking the overall customer journey to the next level is essential because shoppers’ expectations now stretch far beyond the website, to factors such as delivery and returns – get these areas wrong and customers will abandon you,” commented Andy Lockley, head of e-commerce at EnergyBulbs, an online retailer of lighting products. “We used operational technologies to make improvements to our own customer experience - including the ability to process orders twice as fast as we did before.”

However, it's not all bad news for retail brands, as the research also showed that consumers would be willing to spend an average 12 per cent more for the same product or service if they were guaranteed a frictionless experience. A further 18 per cent of shoppers aged 25 to 34 would be willing to increase their spend with brands that met their expectations.

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