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12.02.2011

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Shopping Topography

New Research That Connects the Dots to Understand Why People Shop the Way They Do

Shopping has become increasingly complex. There can be no denying that fundamental shifts are taking place across the shopping landscape. While today’s consumers are faced with more product and brand choices, channel options and economic pressures than ever before, today’s shoppers are also much savvier than anytime in modern shopping history. The marketplace is overrun with data that says what passes through cash registers, but nothing that really explains why shoppers do what they do. Important things happen in-store at point of sale, but we also know that there is a vast world beyond it that has tremendous influence on shopping and purchase behaviors. Consequently, the need to understand how people really shop has never been greater.

There is plenty of retail-related research and consulting that goes on these days but much of it takes a narrow focus that leaves one, in the end, feeling like they’re still not sure how it all ties together. It’s difficult to show connections between broader shopper influences and what happens at retail.

To provide a deeper understanding of the drivers that lead to purchase and repeat purchase (e.g., return trips to the store), Hartman Group is launching a new syndicated study, Shopper Topography: Mapping the Opportunity Spaces Along the Pathways to Purchase. This study incorporates what happens beyond the retail space, the critical pre- and post-shopping elements of shopping behaviors, to deliver actionable recommendations on ways to reach shoppers along the path to purchase.

Download the Shopping Topography overview

The primary focus of the Shopping Topography study will be:

Pre-/During/Post-Shop: Understanding the factors that lead to purchase and return trips (for example: Pre-shop the occasions influencing channel choice; During shopping the interaction with marketing messaging, product assortment, etc.; Post-shop understanding product usage and storage, etc.)
Channels: Grocery, Mass, Drug, Club and Dollar Stores
Categories: Foods & Beverages, Personal Care and OTC
Value: : Consumers continue to be driven by a cultural imperative to economize, (private label purchases, coupon clipping, daily deals, etc.) but are equally driven by the ongoing shift toward a redefinition of value that privileges quality and experience over price (per quantity).

The study combines the best of our qualitative ethnographic and quantitative online research techniques to delve into the holistic process of shopping. The final deliverable will include these key elements:

Channel Selection and Preference. Understand how shoppers make channel selections and garner preferences and learn what you can do to influence the process.

Identify motivators and barriers to shopping specific channels
Uncover tools utilized to help influence channel choice (e.g., Internet, store flyers, etc.)
Discover how shopper occasions drive channel/store selection
Outline consumer expectations of, and satisfaction with, various channels

In-Store Influencers. Learn what works and what doesn’t in-store to push shoppers to take action so you get the most of our of your efforts.

Identify drivers of in-store decision making (e.g., merchandising, messaging, product assortment, etc.)
Present best-in-class example of in-store stimuli
Explore overall store experience as a key determinant of shopper satisfaction

In-Home Experience. Uncover how your product is used once in the home and the optimal ways to continue the conversation with the shopper out of the store

Track product lifecycles in the home (e.g., storage, usage)
Delineate how shoppers conduct product evaluation in the home environment
Map the thought process leading to repeat purchase/shopping trips
Identify the best tools for on-going communication with the shopper

A limited number of early sponsors of the study have the opportunity to add customized proprietary components. For more information about the study, special pricing and including customized, proprietary questions on the survey download the study overview.

Download Shopping Topography and participation agreement form

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