The Power of Shopper Insights

Understanding customers, what they’re shopping for, and how they’re shopping is what researchers refer to as shopper insights.

This blog explores the process of uncovering consumer shopper insights, from the types of products consumers are purchasing to the channels they're using to buy them.

Understanding shopper insights

For retail brands, shopper insights provide a glimpse into target customers’ minds, unraveling the motivations, behaviors, and decision-making processes that guide their shopping trips and purchase decisions. They reveal how shoppers interact with a brand, its products, and its marketing efforts throughout their entire shopping journey.

It's about understanding not just what shoppers buy, but also why, where, and how they buy it. This understanding allows brands to make informed business decisions and drive sustainable growth.

What do shopper insights involve?

‘Shopper insights’ is a rather broad term, encompassing a number of valuable customer insights such as:

Shopper behavior: Observing and analyzing how shoppers navigate a retail space, be it brick-and-mortar store layouts or online platforms (i.e. e-commerce sites). When researching shopper behavior, brands observe how customers interact with products (touching, examining, comparing) and how they ultimately make purchase decisions.
Shopper preferences: These are the features, functionalities, benefits, and values shoppers look for in the products they’re shopping for. Preferences are what help shoppers narrow down the array of product options from a variety of brands.
Shopper motivations: Motivations describe the underlying psychological and emotional drivers behind shoppers' choices. It uncovers shoppers’ underlying needs, desires, and aspirations, which brands can leverage to craft compelling marketing campaigns and messages for meaningful connections.
Shopper demographics: The age, gender, income level, and other characteristics of your target shoppers. Like shopper preferences and motivations, demographic information helps businesses define, tailor, and target their product development and marketing strategies accordingly.
Shopper segmentation: Segmentation divides shoppers into distinct groups based on shared characteristics, needs, and behaviors. By segmenting an audience, businesses (and especially their marketing teams) can deeply understand their audience and develop personalized product recommendations, communications, and a tailored shopping experience.

Through these various dimensions of shopper insights, businesses gain a profound understanding of their shoppers to make informed decisions that drive customer satisfaction, loyalty, and sustainable success. It's about seeing the shopping experience from the customer's perspective, anticipating their needs, and exceeding their expectations at every possible touchpoint.
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What is the difference between a shopper and a consumer?

While the terms "shopper" and "consumer" are often used interchangeably, they represent distinct roles in the purchasing process.

Shopper: (Also sometimes further categorized as ‘Purchaser’), the individual who physically visits a store or website and (as a Purchaser) makes the purchase.
Consumer: The individual who ultimately uses or consumes the product or service.

While the shopper/purchaser and the consumer may very well be the same person, there are instances where they are different - such as when a parent shops for groceries for their family or when someone buys a gift for someone else.

Shopper Insights vs. Consumer Insights

Shopper insights focus on understanding the behavior and decision-making process of the person actually shopping for a product/service. They explore how shoppers interact with products, displays, and marketing messages in the shopping environment.
Consumer insights focus on understanding the needs, wants, and motivations of the end-user of a product or service. With consumer insights, researchers will delve into a consumer's lifestyle, preferences, and emotional connection with a brand
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Sources and methods for gathering shopper insights

Shopper insights can come from a variety of sources - both internal (within the business) and external (publicly- available). Below are a few examples of where businesses might capture these shopping behavior insights, perhaps even leveraging a combination of sources.

In-store observations and shop-alongs: Observing shoppers in their natural habitat and conducting interviews at the point of sale to gain firsthand insights into their behavior and decision-making processes.
Eye tracking: Using advanced (often AI-driven) technology to track e-commerce shoppers' eye movements on screen while viewing advertisements, product options, checkout/payment pages, etc.
Surveys and questionnaires: Collecting quantitative data (e.g. rating scales, multi-matrix questions, etc.) around shopper preferences, motivations, psychographics, and demographics.
Focus groups: Focus groups are moderated group discussions (in-person or virtual) that encourage open dialogue on shopper attitudes and opinions, allowing participants to build on each other's ideas.
Social media listening: Social media listening allows brands to monitor online conversations, identify trends and sentiments, and understand customer pain points (+ those of competitors!).
Point of sale data: Analyzing actual transactional data to understand purchase patterns and identify opportunities for optimization.
User experience (UX) research: User experience (UX) research evaluates how shoppers interact with your website or app to identify areas for improvement. After all, a poor user experience can hinder purchases for even the best products.

Brands conducting shopper insights research might use one or several of the above approaches. For example, a brand might start with a quantitative survey or questionnaire and follow up on those insights with a qualitative focus group (or vice-versa).
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Analyzing shopper behavior data

Once you’ve collected your shopper insights (using any method/approach you choose), next it’s time for analyzing and extracting actionable insights from your data. This involves identifying patterns, trends, and correlations that can inform strategic decision-making. Brands might even leverage advanced analytics for say, shopper segmentation, which divides a target audience based on their unique behavior, preferences, or needs.

To illustrate a shopper insights example, let's consider a fitness apparel brand:

Identifying shopper preferences

While examining their collected data, a fitness apparel brand discovers that a large number of its shoppers prioritize comfort and performance of their apparel over trendy designs. This insight encourages them to prioritize comfortable, high-performance apparel with innovative fabrics and moisture-wicking technology, while maintaining a classic aesthetic.

Assessing shopper motivations

Through in-depth interviews and focus groups, the brand uncovers that its shoppers are primarily motivated to shop for fitness apparel as a means to achieve their fitness goals and feel confident doing so. This understanding guides their future marketing campaigns to emphasize the empowering and transformative aspects of their apparel, showcasing real people achieving their real fitness aspirations.

Uncovering purchase barriers

While further analyzing shopper behavior, the fitness apparel brand discovers that a significant portion of online shoppers often abandon their carts at checkout. This prompts them to investigate things like user experience bugs, high shipping costs, or a complicated checkout process. By addressing these barriers, they improve their conversion rates and drive more online sales.

Segmentation and targeting

Through segmentation, the brand identifies three distinct groups: 'yoga enthusiasts' who prioritze comfort, 'performance athletes' who seek high-performance fabrics, and 'everyday movers' who look for comfortable, casual ‘athleisure’ wear. This allows for closely-targeted product lines and effective marketing campaigns.

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To stay ahead of evolving consumer behavior and market trends, it's crucial to continuously gather and analyze shopper insights. As demonstrated in the above example, the fitness apparel brand can use their shopper insights to make data-driven decisions that enhance their product offerings, marketing strategies, and overall shopper experience, ultimately driving growth and fostering long-term customer loyalty.
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Benefits of leveraging shopper insights

By leveraging shopper insights through market research, businesses can gain a competitive edge, optimize their marketing strategies, refine their product development process, and enhance the overall shopper experience.

More specifically, brands can:

Improve product development: Using shopper research, brands can develop new products that truly meet the needs and desires of shoppers, increasing the chance of product success.
Enhance marketing effectiveness: Shopper insights drive targeted marketing campaigns that resonate with specific shopper segments and drive greater engagement and conversions.
Optimize pricing strategies: Brands can use shopper insights to set realistic prices that align with shoppers' perceived value and willingness to pay.
Enhance in-store and online experiences: Shopper insights help optimize both physical store and online shopping experiences, creating a seamless omni-channel journey.
Increase sales and profitability: Understanding and fulfilling shopper needs allows brands to strategically position themselves and boost revenue. Sharing insights on seasonality and merchandising trends can also foster stronger retailer partnerships long-term.
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Shopper insights, in summary

In today's highly-competitive retail landscape, shopper insights are more important than ever. By understanding the complex factors that influence shopper behavior, businesses can make more informed decisions, optimize their marketing efforts, and create a more compelling shopping experience that drives sales and fosters long-term customer loyalty.

To learn more about shopper insights and how to run shopper insight studies with quantilope’s Consumer Intelligence Platform, get in touch below!