At the Path To Purchase Institute’s annual Shopper Marketing
Expo, Alison Chaltas of GFK shopper and retail strategy, shared a
global study that revealed the future of shopping is “getting extreme.”
Chaltas said that a
hard economy – with one in three barely able to meet expenses and only 15%
living comfortably – is fueling the emergence of a new shopper profile. This
“extreme shopper” is wired; 68% research purchases on the internet and buy in
store.
While “extreme
shopper” was new, the concept of ROBO (research online buy offline) has been
around for a while, but the percentage was interestingly high. However, what caught my attention was the way in which the shopper was doing the
research and the emergence of mobile as the research tool.
The study found one
quarter are using their phone to help shop, and that they’re seeing a
broadening of categories this applies to, not just consumer electronics and
clothes, but also food and beverages, as well as health and beauty.
They also found a multi-dimensional aspect to mobile
shopping: value seeking is the goal of 89%, 51% are using mobile to connect to
social media as a shopping tool, 24% are using it transactionally, and 82%
informationally.
