The pandemic is still front of mind for brands across all categories, despite restrictions on shopping being largely a thing of the past. COVID-19’s impact on buyers’ ability to shop in-store lasted long enough that convenience shopping culture is no longer a fad, but a trend. One with established patterns of consumer behavior, new skills for shoppers, and new consumer preferences. Brand loyalty has suffered as a result.
The question many brands are asking themselves today is, “Does brand loyalty even exist anymore?”
What is the modern shopper looking for from brands?
Convenience shoppers aren’t the early adopters at this point. By now, brands are scrabbling to capture even the late adopters. It seems the whole world has moved online. And it’s no surprise. For many, many months, shoppers were forced online for everything from their weekly grocery shop to getting the kids back to school, to buying a new pair of jeans. COVID has created a lasting shift to online shopping for between 10% and 50% of shoppers, and the trend is not declining since the calming of pandemic restrictions. In fact, the trend continues to grow, and with it, the willingness of shoppers to substitute for brands they’d never considered before. Why? Convenience and ease of access are now non-negotiable.
Online shopping has given consumers the power to comparison shop from the comfort of home. Access to consumer reviews means buyers can see what other buyers think about a product, and if they don’t like what they read, it’s a matter of switching things up and trying a product or brand with better reviews. Shopping online has given buyers a window into other people’s experiences that they’ve never had before. This results in a greater willingness to try new things and experiment with greater freedom.
For many buyers, brand loyalty in-store was so entrenched that even price fluctuations or incentives from other brands had limited long-term impact. Nowadays, convenience is king. Here is what the post-COVID shopper is looking for:
- Positive consumer reviews – it’s easy to access good or bad reviews about a product, and bad reviews motivate buyers to substitute for something that has been reviewed more positively.
- Ease of return – if shoppers don’t need to return an item to store, they’re more willing to give it a try. This includes things like clothing, which many shoppers were traditionally hesitant to buy online.
- Time-saving – even when working from home, people are still busy and are more sensitive about their time management than ever.
- Curbside pickup – despite the imperfection of online grocery shopping and curbside pickup, the level of convenience they offer means shoppers will suffer small annoyances.
The additional layer of challenges that inflation presents means even greater volatility in brand loyalty. This doesn’t mean the brand loyal shopper no longer exists, but it does mean brands need to rethink the way they go about capturing them.
How can brands create brand loyal consumers in today’s world?
Whether shopping online or in-store, shoppers are expecting different things from brands these days. But it’s not a crapshoot. Building consumer loyalty simply means a shift in priorities, including:
Simplifying communication and perfecting messaging
There is a lot of noise out there, and getting your message across to consumers, to encourage brand loyalty, requires simply and effective messaging. While it’s easy to throw out a few promotions, bundles, or ‘save money with XYZ’ deals here and there, cutting prices is not a long-term solution. It undermines the category and creates a downward spiral for all brands, the bottom of which is unsustainable gouging and pitiful margins.
Brands need to consider instead what they can offer in lieu of lower prices. Can a brand give back in an innovative and more meaningful way? For example, are there sustainability issues that clients are concerned with? Shoppers want to know:
- How can I choose the brand I know and love, AND save money?
- Why should I buy this product over another?
- What are the benefits of this way to purchase?
Understanding what the customer wants, and ensuring your messaging is answering those burning questions, is key to building consumer loyalty in today’s convenience shopping world. With expert market research, brands can uncover not only what buyers think about a product or brand, but where they want their money spent, what’s going on in their lives, and whether the messaging is hitting its mark. Consumer insights give brands a window into the shopper’s mind, uncovering what they’re thinking and feeling as they review the benefits a brand offers.
Improving the shopper’s experience
As the modern consumer shifts ever more permanently to convenience shopping, brands need to rethink the way they entice the customer into store or towards their product. Today’s shopper is used to chic, clean, welcoming online environments where shopping is a breeze and returns are as simple as leaving an envelope on the doorstep. Competing with that in-store means marrying the convenience of online shopping with the unique experiences available in a bricks-and-mortar establishment. This comes down to:
- Drawing consumers in with simple, clear messaging
- Creating a bright, clean, and welcoming environment
- Removing friction where possible (easy movement through the store, hassle-free returns, reduced waiting times, for example)
- Staff that make the customer feel as though their business matters
Let’s talk more about that last point. One of the most noticeable impacts the pandemic has had on the in-store experience is a shortfall of staff and training. With thousands upon thousands of retail job losses over the last couple of years, stores are still playing catch-up in terms of re-hiring and training. Needless to say, this has had a less-than-positive impact on the in-store experience for shoppers. Despite this, some brands are getting it right. It’s not an impossible task, rather, it’s a matter of placing greater focus on training staff in customer service. After all, your staff is the face of your brand. Where one store’s employees fail to please customers, its competitor may be generating a new army of brand loyal consumers by getting this crucial component right. In-store experience matters to the new convenience-conscious consumer.
Creating the right retail environment with staff
Brands hoping to bring their shoppers back into a retail environment should be asking, “Are we sure we have the right environment?” That comes down, incontrovertibly, to the staff in stores.
“Your staff will only treat customers as well as they are being treated.”
Understandably, staffing and training have suffered over the course of the pandemic and many brands are still recovering. The bad news is, consumers aren’t interested in excuses. Convenience shopping has made the modern shopper a time-saving, experienced-focused, convenience-shopping expert. They want a hassle-free journey through store, and they want a reason to be there. When even your morning cup of coffee can be delivered from the local Starbucks without ever once having to interact with a human (Uber Eats no-contact delivery, anyone?), shoppers need an incentive to even approach a store. Consider this example from one of our team:
“Taking my daughter to our local big-brand coffee store lately, the staff are consistently horrid. They’re grumpy and know nothing about customer service. But when we go down the street to another famous brand, they never fail to fall over backward to make us feel we are the only customers in the store. That’s really important, shoppers need to know that they matter to your brand, and that their dollar matters.”
Brands will cry, ‘No money for staff!” or ‘No money for training!”. But the truth of the matter is, there is a lot left to lose, should brands fail to get this right. Despite the shift to online shopping, the vast majority of people are still spending time in stores (however reduced). Here’s how some brands are getting it right:
- Incentivizing staff (with better pay, contributions to college, flexible hours, for example)
- Staff who feel important are more likely to make their customers feel the same way
- Communicating these commitments to customers, so they know about the efforts being made in stores
The Methodologies and Technologies that Help Brands get it Right
If your brand is struggling with all of the above right now, you’re not the only one. Creating brand loyalty and swinging consumer preference in your favor is a tricky business in today’s world of convenience shopping. Thankfully, there are solutions. Shopper insights experts like Explorer Research specialize in methodologies and technologies that help brands gain a better understanding of consumer behavior, what brand loyalty means to buyers, and more.
Consumer insights methods and technologies such as in-person qualitative research, in-store IDIs, and immersive VR environments can help us to answer questions like:
- Is signage communicating what’s important to shoppers?
- Were employees knowledgeable and helpful?
- Is it difficult to shop in the store versus online or in another store?
- How did the staff make customers feel, and how does this impact brand loyalty?
- How are shoppers evaluating their choices?
- How are shoppers feeling and thinking when in the store and interacting with staff?
- What are consumers using as their benchmarks to evaluate a product, service, or brand?
- Do shoppers have a reason to believe the claims being made by a brand?
The truth is, all brands are struggling, and even most of the ones getting it right have been through the trenches before figuring it out. Quality shopper insights research can help brands to avoid these lows and pivot toward more effective marketing strategies before it’s too late.
Explorer Research has the broadest range of immersive testing environments and utilizes innovative technologies to get your brand the answers it needs, now. Contact our team today to answer your most burning questions about brand loyalty and how to harness it in today’s world of convenience shopping.
