Impulse buying is a critical element in the realm of retail. It’s the secret sauce that drives sales and increases shopping cart value in supermarkets, convenience stores, department stores, the local pharmacy, and more. But how does this strategy hold up as shopping moves online? That’s the big question we’re tackling, as the swing towards online retail continues to reshape the customer journey.
Transplanting impulse buying strategies from physical stores to the online marketplace isn’t easy. Online shoppers often know exactly what they want and come prepared with lists, leaving less room for spontaneous purchases. What’s more, they can see their spending tick ever upwards, as each new item is added to the cart. It can feel like an uphill battle for impulse categories, but it’s not an impossible one.
With a little creativity and a deep dive into our market research and Customer Activation Framework, we can uncover new ways to keep impulse buying alive and well in the online shopping world.
The Changing Landscape of Impulse Buying
Impulse buying, the heartbeat of many product categories and a pivotal element in retail strategy has long been a critical part of the consumer journey across diverse retail landscapes, from local convenience stores to vast supermarkets. The role of impulse buying in shaping consumer behavior and driving brand success cannot be overstated. Yet, as the retail paradigm shifts towards an increasingly digital model, we’re confronted with a monumental challenge: How do we translate the successful strategies of in-store impulse buying to the burgeoning sphere of e-commerce?
Adapting the dynamics of impulse purchases to the online environment is no mean feat. We’re navigating unfamiliar terrain here, a terrain where the traditional ingredients of impulse buying are either conspicuously absent or significantly transformed. Online shopping often presents us with consumers armed with a pre-determined, detailed shopping list, and the chance discoveries of in-store shopping are largely a thing of the past. The new challenge lies in presenting these opportunities in ways that are as helpful to consumers as they are to retailers.
Reshaping how we Think About Impulse Strategy
The shift from in-store to online shopping has brought a new set of challenges for brands looking to drive impulse buying. The traditional point-of-purchase displays near checkout counters don’t translate as effectively in the digital world. Instead, we need a more holistic approach that considers the entire online customer journey.
To better serve the impulse category in online retail, we first need to understand the new landscape of retail. Online shopping is not only a convenient alternative to bricks-and-mortar store trips for many shoppers, but during the pandemic, it became essential. Even as social distancing restrictions dropped and shoppers began to feel safer in venturing out of their homes, online shopping had become so ingrained in consumers’ behavior that it began to reshape the way they think about shopping. Although driving impulse shopping online may seem like an impossible task, it simply requires a little innovation and creativity in our approach.
Through our Shopper Activation Framework research, we’ve uncovered the five most critical innovations for the survival of the impulse category.
- Points of Interruption: Where and How
Creating “points of interruption” during the consumer’s shopping journey can trigger impulse buying. But how do we do this effectively in a virtual environment that’s designed for efficiency and speed? Not to mention the short attention spans of shoppers and the ever-growing cart value on screen. The answer lies in understanding the total shopper journey and finding creative ways to present impulse items.
To promote impulse, brands should consider various potential points of interruption, not just those at the virtual online checkout. We need to think more broadly than the e-commerce website. Instead, we need to expand our impulse opportunities and be where our shopper is, think about the opportunity to interrupt your consumer when they are on the go at airport halls, vending machines, and even the pick-up point for click-and-collect purchases.
- The Role of Smart Home Technology
Smart home technology is becoming an increasingly significant part of our daily lives, offering exciting new ways to stimulate impulse buying. Imagine this: You’re preparing dinner, and your smart fridge notes that you’re low on milk. It sends a notification to your phone, prompting you to restock. As you open the app to add milk to your shopping list, you see a promotion for a new brand of ice cream. Thinking forward to the weekend and movie night, you add it to your cart along with some popcorn (also helpfully suggested by the app). Impulse purchases are made, all thanks to the integration of smart home technology.
Although not every home currently has a smart fridge, they’re on the rise, along with other, more common smart home technologies. Voice-activated assistants like Alexa or Google Home that can place orders for you or remind you that it’s probably time (based on your shopping habits) to stock up on your kid’s favorite treats are playing an increasing role in shopping habits.
Smart home technology can also assist with managing the pantry. Not only can it keep track of what you have in stock, but it can also suggest new products based on what you typically keep on hand. This can lead to incremental purchases and increased impulsivity in a home environment. With the right strategies, brands can leverage these technologies to create a more engaging and personalized shopping experience. The key is to keep up with the latest trends and understand how consumers are using (and will begin to use) these technologies in their daily lives.
- Understanding Consumer Intent and Behavior
In today’s increasingly digital age, businesses must deeply understand changing consumer behavior to stay competitive. Voice-activated technologies, for example, are revolutionizing search engine usage and providing a wealth of data that businesses can leverage to better comprehend and predict consumer intent.
Consider a common household item like cleaning supplies. By monitoring usage patterns and purchase frequency, brands can predict when a customer is likely to need a restock. Questions to ask are: Are there specific seasons or months when customers buy more cleaning supplies? Are there patterns related to significant life events or shifts in the household, like moving to a new house or the arrival of a baby? This approach could be applied to any product typically considered an impulse item, including candy bars, magazines, chewing gum, lip balms, and even kids’ toys.
This kind of granular data can provide profound insights into consumer behavior and help businesses tailor their strategies to encourage impulse buying.
- From Interruption to Helpfulness: A Mindset Shift
To keep the impulse category alive in the online space, a mindset shift is necessary. The key to promoting impulse buying online lies in moving from “interruptive” strategies to ones that are helpful and add value to the customer’s shopping experience. This involves closely monitoring customer purchasing patterns to provide timely, relevant suggestions that enhance the online customer experience. For example, rather than suggesting impulse items at the checkout stage, apps can offer helpful suggestions throughout the journey. Buying pasta sauce? What about some fresh herbs to go with that? Shopping for Thanksgiving dinner? How about a magazine full of Thanksgiving recipes and decorating ideas?
Helpful substitutions are another element to consider. Our research suggests that shoppers are still stressed about inflation. Keeping a close eye on their spending might reduce the likelihood they’ll add a chocolate bar to their cart, but presenting them with money-saving promotions or substitutions can help ease that burden and loosen the purse strings for a little reward here and there.
Conversational commerce plays a crucial role in this context. Imagine a chatbot that not only reminds a customer about a frequently purchased item that they might be running low on, but also recommends a new product similar to those they’ve bought in the past. This kind of personalized, relevant suggestion can significantly boost impulse purchases and enhance the overall digital customer experience.
- The Shopper Activation Framework and the Role of Research
The Shopper Activation Framework is a powerful tool that businesses can use to understand online buying behaviors, identify consumer segments most likely to make impulsive purchases, and pinpoint where to interject with impulse opportunities. This framework is all about studying the consumer’s online journey, right from awareness and consideration to purchase and post-purchase engagement.
Market research is integral to this process. It helps businesses uncover deep insights about the customer journey, such as their decision-making process, their preferences, their pain points, and their interaction with different touchpoints. These insights can then be leveraged to create an optimized shopping experience that effectively encourages impulse buying. Additionally, market research can help businesses understand how different consumer segments react to various stimuli, enabling them to tailor their impulse buying strategies for maximum effect. In the digital world, the data is out there – it just needs to be harnessed.
The Future of Impulse Buying Online
Looking ahead, the future of impulse buying online requires a broader mindset shift. It’s not just about the products, it’s about the overall consumer experience. Layering impulse buying opportunities throughout the customer journey, from asking Alexa to make a shopping list to browsing, to checkout, to airport luggage collection hall, to click-and-collect pick-up point, can help create a more engaging and rewarding shopping experience. Using the Shopper Activation Framework and market research data into consumer behavior can help to flesh out these opportunities and integrate them with emerging technologies that are becoming ever-more present in consumers’ lives. In doing so, brands can drive growth in the impulse category, even in a digital world.
