A study from Zendesk has found that the minor players in the UK’s e-commerce market are having a tough time living up to consumer expectations in the realm of safe shopping online.

Around a third of those small businesses analysed were found to operate across multiple channels, with the rest lacking the kind of cross-platform convenience and support that shoppers can enjoy when turning to big name retail brands.

One of the issues is with the way that customer support services are handled. 85 per cent of people questioned in the study said that they would turn to more than one channel when asking a question or making a complaint if their initial efforts were not met with an immediate response.

44 per cent said that they would give retailers just 60 minutes to get back to them after making an enquiry, which shows that speed is of the essence for small businesses that want to keep customers on board after their initial interaction.

Analysts also found that the smaller retailers that did choose to adopt a multiplatform approach were also more likely to be growing at a faster rate than their less up-to-date rivals.

The same was true of mid-tier businesses, outlining the true power of leveraging as many platforms as possible to serve consumers in 2019.

Report spokesperson Ted Smith said that the size of a retailer was not relevant to customers who buy online and then need some kind of support. All the matters is that their requests and issues are dealt with swiftly and in a way that is competitive with the biggest players.

Because expectations are so high, it pays for small firms to invest in the latest technologies so that they can be responsive in the face of customer interactions.