Second annual report finds that many large, global banks still fail to be digitally ready

Avoka, the global leader in digital customer acquisition for financial services, today released its2017 State of Digital Sales in Banking Report. The second annual report ranks and compares the digital account opening capabilities of 32 of the largest banks in North America, Europe, and Australia, both in the breadth of their digital offerings and in the quality of their customer experience.

Although findings from this year’s report indicate that banks in North America and Europe have made headway in improving their digital capabilities, banks in both regions still fail to capitalize on opportunities to retain and grow their increasingly on-the-go, mobile-first customer base in the face of increasingly stiff competition.

“Banks are conducting digital marketing with success. They are promoting their products via social media, internet search, online ads, their websites, and more. But a troubling disconnect occurs when digital marketing transitions to digital sales,” the report noted.

New to this year’s edition of the report is Avoka’s proprietary “Digital Sales in Banking Readiness Matrix.” The Matrix is a tool which anonymously maps out the banks which are lagging behind in their digital sales implementation, those which have prioritized digital readiness, and finally, highlights the roughly one third of banks that that have reached the optimal “Digital Promised Land.” The Matrix is the only tool of its kind to measure both the quality and the quantity of banks’ digital offerings.

As per the Matrix, the majority of North American and European banks fall into the least digitally prepared category – the “Digital Under-Achievers,” while many also fail to move past the “Legacy Lover” stage. Dominating the “Digital Promised Land” category are six Australian banks, which made the cut in their outstanding digital preparedness.

According to the report, mobile still lags desktop online capabilities for many banks, with North American banks showing the least amount of mobile innovation. Although there has been considerable advances in customer acquisition for personal banking products with 42% of products that can be opened on a mobile device, up from 31% in 2016, European and Australian banks led the increase, with North American banks showing only a 6% increase in the number of products that could be applied for from a mobile device.

The report found there had been little change in the number of small business banking services that could be applied for digitally: (26% versus 24%) or via mobile (7% versus 9%).

“What we have found is that many banks have made progress on the experience of their flagship deposit account, but the breadth of offering across all personal, wealth and business banking accounts lags behind,” said Phil Copeland, Avoka CEO.  “Mobile sales capability is still well below desktop access, important given the growing customer desire to engage from a smartphone”.

“Importantly, there has been no change in the number of products with advanced digital features, such as Save and Resume, that are required for an Omnichannel experience,” Copeland said.

“Overall, the good news is that banks have responded to the message that consumers want to engage and sign up for banking products over mobile devices,” Copeland said. “Avoka is proud to be at the forefront of research into the digital sales landscape, and to be the global leader in helping banks to achieve their digital sales results.”

The 2017 State of Digital Sales in Banking Report can be downloaded here.