Retail strategies must reflect the growing importance of personalisation, price and fulfilment if they are to meet the expectations of today’s shoppers, a new study suggests.
The Kibo Consumer Trends Survey finds that 85% of shoppers are influenced by personalised homepage promotions, while 76% check prices against competitors, and 68% say they’ll go elsewhere for a lower price.
Almost 3,000 consumers in the US and the UK were questioned for the report, which found high, and growing, expectations of a unified shopping and brand experience across sales channels and touchpoints.
Here are five approaches that Kibo identified in its study as key to achieving that.
Individualised shopping experiences
“Personalising a consumer’s experience can have a big impact on their path to purchase, with 85% stating they are influenced by personalized home page promotions and 92% stating personalized shopping cart recommendations influence them to complete a purchase.”
Pricing as driving factor
“Price was a top factor for consumers when considering a purchase, followed by product brand and retailer website brand. The survey indicated that 76% of consumers regularly price-check competitors, up from 66% from last year’s survey.”
Online and in-Store as one seamless experience
“94% of consumers state they do research online before visiting a store, up 8% from last year. Nearly three quarters of consumers expect store associates to be able to access their customer history when they visit a store after purchasing online. Almost half of consumers surveyed had store associates find an item in another store for ship-to-home in the past six months.”
Inventory and fulfillment
“81% of consumers said they have looked up inventory on a retailer’s website before visiting the store and 80% are less inclined to visit a store if a website does not provide current product availability (up 24% from last year).”
Influencers on the path to purchase
“Top influencers on completing an online purchase include interactive content (92%), product reviews (82%), simplified shopping cart (78%), and multiple fulfillment options (66%).”
Tushar Patel, CMO at Kibo, said: “As consumer behaviors, expectations, and demands continue to rise, retailers and brands equipped with the latest data will be better prepared to win. In order to satisfy consumers with high expectations of a cohesive experience no matter the touchpoint, merchants need to do a holistic evaluation of their commerce programs. Knowing where to focus efforts will allow them to make changes that provide the biggest impact to customer satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately the bottom line.”
