Survey Reveals that Consumers Want an Optimised Shopping Experience across Multiple Channels this Christmas

-- An effective engagement strategy across online, social and mobile channels is critical during the busy shopping season, according to LivePerson's consumer survey

LONDON, Nov. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ: LPSN), a leading provider of real-time intelligent engagement solutions, today announced the results of its 2012 Christmas Holiday E-Commerce Survey. The survey, which shows that 63% of respondents are planning to do the majority of their Christmas shopping online, also reveals that there is a strong preference among shoppers for using live chat over other engagement channels.

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The survey focused on the shopping habits of 500 respondents and their attitudes and preferences regarding online tools and channels such as live chat, social media and mobile devices. All respondents were over the age of 18 and shopped online at least twice in the past three months. 

Major findings of the survey include:

- Live chat dominates other communication channels. Respondents indicated they strongly preferred live chat as the customer service channel of choice during the Christmas shopping season. 45% of respondents indicated live chat was their preferred support channel, with email and freephone numbers tied for second place (27%). Further, 94% of respondents who have previously used live chat said they are likely to use live chat again to get help while shopping this Christmas shopping season.

-Consumers are showing significant use of social platforms to interact with brands.  About 40% of respondents using social media for the shopping season stated that they will use Twitter and Facebook to interact with companies, whether it's to Tweet a question or post a comment on a company's Fan-page.

-Consumers desire a better mobile experience, and would like to use live chat in the mobile channel.  One in every two respondents (50%) said it is important to them for a company to have a mobile app or a mobile-optimised website. Moreover, a significant number of respondents (40%) said they would likely use live chat on their mobile device to get assistance if it were available.  

-Tablets are a go-to shopping device. A majority of respondents (65%) expect to use the tablet device as one of two primary devices they use for Christmas shopping, the other being the desktop or laptop computer. 

"In order to provide the most compelling online shopping experience possible, it's essential that businesses understand how consumers are interacting with brands online during the Christmas shopping season," said Frank Dittmar, SVP International, LivePerson. "By intelligently connecting with online visitors, at the right time and through their preferred channel, businesses can exceed consumer expectations this Christmas, enabling them to drive more conversions and greater customer loyalty as a result." 

An infographic highlighting key findings from LivePerson's Holiday E-Commerce Survey can be found here.  For a full summary of survey results, visit the LivePerson Connected Customer blog. For more information on LivePerson, visit www.liveperson.com/uk

About LivePerson
LivePerson, Inc. (Nasdaq: LPSN) offers a cloud-based platform that enables businesses to proactively connect in real-time with their customers via chat, voice and content delivery, at the right time, through the right channel, including websites, social media, and mobile devices. This "intelligent engagement" is driven by real-time behavioural analytics, producing connections based on a true understanding of business objectives and customer needs.

More than 8,500 companies rely on LivePerson's platform to increase conversions and improve customer experience, including Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, Verizon, Sky, Walt Disney, PNC, QVC and Orbitz.

LivePerson received the CODiE award for Best Content Management Solution in 2012 and for Best Ecommerce Solution in 2011, and has been named a Company of the Year by Frost and Sullivan in 2011.  LivePerson is headquartered in New York City with offices in San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Atlanta, London and Melbourne, Australia.

For more information please visit http://www.liveperson.com.

Safe Harbour
Statements in this press release regarding LivePerson that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual future events or results to differ materially from such statements.  Any such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbour provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  It is routine for our internal projections and expectations to change as the quarter and year progresses, and therefore it should be clearly understood that the internal projections and beliefs upon which we base our expectations may change.  Although these expectations may change, we are under no obligation to inform you if they do.  Actual events or results may differ materially from those contained in the projections or forward-looking statements.  Some of the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained herein include, without limitation: potential fluctuations in our quarterly and annual results; the adverse effect that the global recession may have on our business; competition in the real-time sales, marketing, customer service and online engagement solutions market; our ability to retain existing clients and attract new clients; risks related to new regulatory or other legal requirements that could materially impact our business; responding to rapid technological change and changing client preferences; our ability to retain key personnel and attract new personnel; risks related to the operational integration of acquisitions; technology systems beyond our control and technology-related defects that could disrupt the LivePerson services; privacy concerns relating to the Internet that could result in new legislation or negative public perception; risks related to the regulation or possible misappropriation of personal information; legal liability and/or negative publicity for the services provided to consumers via our technology platforms; risks related to protecting our intellectual property rights or potential infringement of the intellectual property rights of third parties.  This list is intended to identify only certain of the principal factors that could cause actual results to differ from those discussed in the forward-looking statements.  Readers are referred to the reports and documents filed from time to time by us with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a discussion of these and other important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those discussed in forward-looking statements.

Contact:

Erin Kang
ekang@liveperson.com
+1-212-609-4256