Whitepaper|November 12, 2024|73 pages

From digital growth to winning in the market

Discover how a focus on customer experience takes you to the top. Learn from 23 market leaders how CX benchmarking drives digital growth and market share.

By Linda

Summary

The route to digital success

In the Dutch e-commerce landscape of 2024, the battle for customers is fiercer than ever. With 93% of all Dutch consumers buying products and services online, the Netherlands ranks among Europe's top performers. The market is growing again after a period of economic contraction, with rising wages and increasing consumer spending of over 9 billion euros in the first quarter.

Customer experience as winning strategy

The top brands across 23 different online markets share one thing in common: a relentless focus on customer experience. Research shows that 73% of consumers consider customer experience the most important factor when choosing a brand, even more important than price and product quality. Companies that excel in this area can pay out up to three times as much dividend as their competitors.

From insight to action with CX benchmarking

The biggest challenge for organizations is knowing where to start with optimization. Without insight into customer experience at your competitors, you miss essential information needed to drive digital growth. By breaking down the customer journey into findability (how easily do customers find your website?) and conversion (how many visitors ultimately choose you?), you gain control over your market position.

WUA's Digital Market Tracker monitors market positions quarterly and shows where the biggest gains can be made. The top performers of 2024, such as Insify.nl, ING.nl, and Odido.nl, achieve their growth through a smart combination of improved findability and higher conversion. The Website Experience Deep Dive then identifies concrete improvement opportunities that demonstrably contribute to conversion.

Your position determines your strategy

This whitepaper demonstrates that digital strategy is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Your market position determines where you should focus. Market leaders concentrate on maintaining their position through innovation and customer satisfaction. Challengers need to optimize their conversion to break through. Niche players build their findability to expand their market share.

With multidisciplinary teams focusing on specific parts of the customer journey and a data-driven approach, your organization creates sustainable competitive advantage. Tomorrow's winners are those who start today with systematically improving their customer experience.

Key Takeaways

73% of consumers consider customer experience the most important factor when choosing a brand, even more important than price and product quality.
Companies with high customer experience can pay out up to three times as much dividend as their competitors.
Dutch consumers spent 3% more online in Q1 2024 compared to Q1 2023, with a total of over 9 billion euros in online spending.
The biggest market share gainers achieve their growth through a combination of improved findability and higher conversion, not through a single factor alone.
CX benchmarking is essential: without insight into customer experience at competitors, you miss crucial information and cannot steer toward digital growth.
Multidisciplinary teams focused on specific parts of the customer journey (like the Spotify model) ensure more focus on customer experience and fewer internal projects.
iDEAL as a payment method reached a new peak in 2024 with 73% of all online purchases, while smartphone usage for online shopping increased to 27%.
Digital strategy differs by market position: market leaders focus on customer satisfaction and innovation, while challengers must optimize their conversion to break through.