Only 37% consumers believe retailers offer truly customer-centric experiences: Kantar CX+ study

• Customer experience is all pervasive, whether derived out of products or services that one experiences. CX+ is the only sector specific index to look at brands in the context of their category.
• CX+ uses customer centricity as its core to evaluate CX performance of retailers in three sectors – grocery, fashion and general retail. Findings reveal that only 37% of Indian consumers rate their retailer as truly customer centric.

In today’s experience era, the majority of CEOs believe customer centricity is essential for driving business growth. However, there is still a big gap between ambition and reality; while nearly all CEOs in India see the need to become customer-centric, just 37% of consumers believe retailers offer truly customer-centric experiences, according to Kantar CX+ study.

The new CX+ study released by Kantar today assesses retailers based on a unique combination of their customer experience scores. In addition, the study identifies each retailer’s Experience Gap – which quantifies the difference between their Brand Promise and the actual customer experience delivered.

In the study conducted in early 2020, clear winners emerged in each of the sectors. Amazon was rated the top retailer in 2 sectors out of the 3 covered. DMart emerged as the winner in the grocery sector. While Flipkart figures in the top 3 in all sectors.

Kantar CX+ 2020: Top Retail organizations in India


CX+ reflects that providing excellent customer experiences is no longer enough. In a connected environment, brands and customer experience have become synonymous. Thus, the roadmap to growth is based on 5 key CX success factors:

1. Clarity of brand promise
2. Empowered employees
3. Empowered customers
4. Creating lasting memories
5. Exceptional delivery

Commenting on the launch of the findings and CX+ ranking, Sushmita Balasubramaniam, Domain Lead for CX and Commerce, Kantar South Asia said: “We are currently going through major changes – economically and socially, and consumer priorities are changing in line with how the pandemic is unfolding. This has resulted in their purchases also changing, right from what they buy, where they buy, to how much they spend.

In this changed scenario, retailers need to tread even more carefully since they are dealing with situations no one has encountered before. Our CX+ study reveals that for many retailers, there is a huge gap between the brand promise and customer experience. The retailers who emerge as leaders are those who have delivered a superior customer experience that is matched with a strong brand promise thus giving them a distinctive ‘Experience Advantage’ over their competition.

Retailers have a tremendous opportunity to review their strategies, take the current challenges head on and look for ways and means to service customer needs better in the coming months. They will have to do this in the presence of a strong traditional retail which became even more indispensable during lockdown times. Creating a shopping ecosystem with the customer at the center - integrated retail that goes beyond just having a digital and physical presence, redefining the role of the physical store, offering safe yet personalized shopping environments are factors that will be critical to win.”

Other findings underline the clear benefits of delivering strong customer experience – in the 3 retail sectors

In grocery retail:

• Retailers that lead in the CX+ Index are 1.4x more likely to be recommended than those at the lower end of the index.
• The likelihood of their customers remaining loyal to them increases by 1.6x
• Retailers with whom the last interaction has been excellent become the most preferred retailer for the future in 1.4x cases.
• Delivering on basics is critical for a grocery retailer – variety and quality of products at good value coupled with ease of shopping – the key contributors to building better experience

In fashion retail

• Retailers that lead in the CX+ Index are 1.5x more likely to be recommended than those at the lower end of the index.
• The likelihood of their customers remaining loyal to them increases by 1.6x
• Retailers with whom the last interaction has been excellent become the most preferred retailer for the future in 1.3x cases.
• Fashion retail needs to deliver on many fronts, with range and value leading the pack. But, in store experience – digital or physical and use of technology to deliver an enhanced shopping experience becomes a key differentiator

In general retail

• Retailers that lead in the CX+ Index are 1.6x more likely to be recommended than those at the lower end of the index.
• The likelihood of their customers remaining loyal to them increases by 2.2x
• Retailers with whom the last interaction has been excellent become the most preferred retailer for the future in 1.3x cases.
• Like fashion, general retail also must deliver on many fronts. But, employees and support provided to customers to make the shopping process easier can be a key differentiator in experience.

The Kantar CX+ 2020 study analyzed 6,068 retail customers in India and was conducted in early 2020.