The Institute for Business Value, in association with the National Retail Federation, the world’s largest retail association, has released its second global study, “Consumers Want It All”, which reveals growing consumer preferences for sustainability and shopping journeys spread across multiple digital, physical and mobile touchpoints.
“While many consumers surveyed still place a high value on the traditional in-store shopping experience, they also now expect to be able to build their own buying journey – based on behaviors unique to their age group. , tools available and the category of product they are looking to buy,” said Mark Mathews, vice president of research development and industry analysis at the National Retail Federation. ‘hybrid’ approach is a fundamental shift in consumer behavior.”
Hybrid shopping – mixing physical and digital channels into shopping journeys – is on the rise as shopping habits adopted by consumers out of necessity during the Covid-19 pandemic become routine. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
The new global study of more than 19,000 consumers surveyed shows that hybrid shopping – mixing physical and digital channels in shopping journeys – is on the rise as the buying habits that consumers adopted out of necessity during the Covid-19 pandemic are becoming routine. Retailers need to become more agile in meeting customers where they are, integrating digital and in-store experiences.
About 72% of respondents said they use the store as all or part of their primary shopping method. Adding that the top reasons respondents choose to visit a store include touching and smelling products before buying them (50%), choosing their own products (47%) and getting products immediately ( 43%), but what in-store shoppers are looking for varies by product category.
On the other hand, 27% of respondents say hybrid shopping is their method of choice, and Gen Z consumers surveyed are more likely to be “hybrid shoppers” compared to other age groups.
The study also shows that sustainability has become increasingly important to the purchasing decisions and brand preferences of consumers surveyed since 2020.
This includes purpose-driven consumers, who choose products/brands based on their values such as sustainability, now make up the largest segment of consumers surveyed (44%), while 62% of respondents are willing to change their purchasing habits to reduce the environmental impact, on the rise. compared to 57% two years ago.
Additionally, half of those surveyed said they were willing to pay a premium for sustainability – an average premium of 70%. That’s about double the 2020 premium.
There is, however, a gap between intention and action: only 31% of respondents said that durable products constituted most or all of their last purchase.
“The survey shows that over the past year, sustainability has become increasingly important to consumers, although there is still a gap between their intentions and their actions due to lack of information in buying process,” said Luq Niazi, global general manager of IBM Consumer Industries. “Increasingly, it is becoming essential for retail brands to provide sustainable choices and options at every stage of the customer experience. At the same time, hybrid shopping has taken hold in most categories, especially homeware and apparel; and while stores continue to play the dominant role in grocery shopping, hybrid shopping is also growing in these categories.”
“Despite the impact of Covid-19, our experience with customers shows that many leading retail brands continue to rapidly transform operations, customer experience and supply chains with technologies such as AI, hybrid cloud and blockchain to help address these multiple customer preferences,” Niazi said. .
