THE NEW AGE OF THE SHOPPER / OPINION

It was a long-held maxim of retail marketing, 70% of purchasing decisions are made in-store. Not anymore. 83% of shoppers now claim that they are making purchase decisions out of the store. An unprecedented reversal. Shoppers are living through a perfect storm that is impacting behaviour and creating what we are calling The New Age of the Shopper.

1. The New Value Mindset

In our post-recession world, shoppers prefer prudence over excess, control over impulse. The emotional need for control in uncertain times has led to more planning, more shopping around, more price comparisons, greater use of coupons, stricter shopping lists and more promotional buying. This new behaviour has been accompanied by decreasing loyalty to both brands and retailers.

2. A crisis of trust

The collapse of global finance has left everyone more sceptical and more aware of risk in general. With belief, trust and transparency now at the heart of choosing products, driving credible recommendations for your product is fast becoming the single most important thing shopper marketers can do. Social commerce is exploding across a wide range of different categories. Pampers' Facebook store is now undertaking 1000's of transactions every hour.

3. Unprecedented choice

There are 40,000 products in a modern supermarket. Tesco introduced 8,000 new products last year alone. That's already more choice than most people can deal with, yet it pales into insignificance when compared with the 650,000+ titles available for the Kindle from Amazon. Confronted with paralysing choice inside retail environments, shoppers are finding new ways to deselect and reduce their choices. For years, Tesco has been linking Clubcard and dotcom data to create online favourites from your real store shopping. Now their new app enables shopping without even entering the store by simply scanning barcodes wherever you are.

4. Always on technology = always on shopping

Never before have shoppers had so much information, and so much technological capability to search for and buy what they want. Online pre purchase research, the explosion of the mobile web and shopping apps, objective online communities, comparison sites, person to person transaction in a virtual marketplace, the list goes on. The 2011 shopper is always online, and the physical store is now just as likely to be a place of inspiration, as a place to make decisions.

So what must brands do?

Don't start with the technology, start with the shopper. Shoppers don't separate digital, out of home and in-store; they move seamlessly between communities, technologies and environments to achieve their tasks. Understanding the Shopping Cycle is the vital first step. But getting under the skin of the emotional motivations behind that behaviour is the key. Brands must start to see digital marketing not simply as a way to socialise brand equity, but a place to inspire buying momentum.


Simon Goodall is director of strategy at Saatchi & Saatchi X