Shoppers on a Mission

During recent years ROI Team has conducted questionnaire-based interviews with some 10,000 shoppers a year throughout the UK, working mostly in shopping centres – but also in High Streets, out-of-town centres, and retail parks. The interviews present a picture of a shopping culture that has changed fundamentally over the three years since the start of the UK recession in 2008. And ROI Team’s work under the What do Shoppers Say? brand during 2011 has confirmed the intelligence from our client work.

Gone are the days of the regular leisurely shopping trip to buy the great bulk of purchases at one location, staying in the same centre for an hour or more. Instead we find that UK shoppers have swapped the shopping ‘experience’ for the shopping ‘mission’.

Today’s shoppers devote huge energy and effort, regularly visiting a number of centres, sometimes even during the same day, to extract best value from dwindling budgets. Shoppers will regularly visit a number of locations to compare prices before finally making the purchase, maybe at the first location visited.

One upshot is that footfall has been extremely robust, whilst other KPI’s (e.g. dwell time, frequency of visit, average spend per trip etc) have all declined.

Shoppers on a Mission

• Loyalty to one shopping place is eroding as shoppers visit an ever greater number of locations – both in and beyond their main shopping town. And exposure to new destinations make shoppers more demanding
• ‘Shopping around’ to compare prices, seeking out best value, is the post-recession shopping style
• The proportion of short shopping visits (ie less than 30 minutes) has increased, whilst the average number of stores visited per trip has declined
• Value retailers – from Primark to pound shops – are increasingly dominating centres and High Streets. The value and range offered by retailers like Primark and Wilkinson is denting the success of mid-market retailers
• As recession bit in 2008 and 2009, more men were found in shopping centres. But men have not been converted to the shopping creed, and today we find once again that about 70% of people in a shopping centre are women
• Car usage for shopping trips has been declining for the last 5 years at least, and the rising cost of fuel in the last year has accelerated this trend
• The internet too is changing shopping habits. Shoppers are relying on retailer and centre websites to plan their trips, and more than half of them now use online shopping sites for a range of purchases
• Social media usage amongst shoppers, especially younger shoppers, is high with Facebook almost totally dominating the scene. Shoppers are keen to learn about offers, promotions, and deals from Facebook pages.