On The Importance of Understanding Omnichannel Shoppers:
It’s an easy trap for brands to begin thinking of consumers in distinct buckets: online shoppers and in-store shoppers. But that’s not an accurate picture. Granted, there are sections of the population who stick to solely one or the other. There are people who have never trusted the internet enough to put their payment info online, and there’s a growing number who realized they preferred online shopping during lockdown and have no intention of returning to brick and mortar. But in reality, a large percentage of shoppers are neither one nor the other: the omnichannel shopper is both at once.
One additional important distinction to make is that many omnichannel shoppers no longer distinguish between desktop and mobile shopping – they expect the same experience no matter what device they’re on. We all know a huge percentage of the shopper population is also using online research to inform in-store decisions. It’s important to get ahead of the curve when it comes to qualitative market research around the omnichannel shopper. How important? Research suggests that omnichannel shoppers have a 30% higher lifetime value for brands than shoppers who only utilize one channel. That’s an impossible figure to ignore.
Omnichannel shoppers can be difficult to pin down because there’s not a defined formula to which they all adhere. One may be in a mall and see a pair of shoes they like, try them on, but then look them up online to see if there are any other colors. Another may research hobby equipment online in preparation for a trip to a brick-and-mortar specialty store. And still, another may price match, or look up online reviews before making the in-store purchase.
Understanding the nuance between customer groups, how they interact online, what sends them to the store (or encourages them to make a purchase online), and how to engage most effectively with them is crucial. Ultimately, omnichannel shoppers will vote with their fingers (online) or feet (in-store) if a brand does not satisfy their needs.
Limitations of Traditional Research into Omnichannel Shoppers
Qualitative analysis is designed to help you better understand your consumer base by painting a vivid picture of their lives, their motivations, and their behaviors. Focus groups and IDIs, for example, can tell you how your shoppers are thinking and feeling, as well as how they reach their purchase decisions.
When it comes to omnichannel market research, qualitative studies should aim to tell the stories around this new breed of consumer – the one that is comfortable online, expects e-commerce apps and websites to be streamlined and helpful, conducts research around products before buying, and will happily come into the store to make a purchase either because it’s convenient or they’d like to take a closer look. The trouble is in ensuring that the qualitative research is asking the correct questions to the correct shoppers, which is often preliminarily determined by more quantitative methodologies.
How Does the Shopper Activation Framework Maximize Qualitative Market Research?
Segmentation is an important part of the research process when gathering shopper insights. It helps researchers divide a large customer base into several different groups, with the aim of better appealing to each of these distinct groups. But traditional segmentation often oversimplifies shopper behavior by neglecting the variability of consumer emotion between different channels and categories. As retail becomes more and more complex, and shoppers themselves become more diverse in their behaviors, motivators, and in the channels they shop from, some segmentation strategies fail to drill down quite deep enough. The answer to that issue is the Shopper Activation Framework (SAF).
SAF allows us to better categorize shoppers depending on their emotions, drivers, and behaviors within a certain category. We can identify not only where shoppers might be emotional or rational in their shopping behavior, but also whether they are impulse shoppers, brand name buyers, or social and health-conscious pioneers; whether they seek value, are disengaged, or are deal hunters; and whether their trip motivators are routine grocery replenishment, the result of an informed splurge, or are simply an anytime reward.
The Shopper Activation Framework is a powerful tool that tells us more about the mindset shoppers are in, and where their head is when purchasing a particular type of product. The shopper who is disengaged when it comes to grocery shopping might, conversely, be an early adopter of technology that prioritizes research online, before ultimately buying in-store when it comes to tech purchases. Using SAF as a quantitative foundation level from which to conduct in-depth qualitative research provides a certainty that the right questions are being asked of the right shoppers.
