Since 1998, we have successfully helped explain shopping behaviour. Understanding customers and skilful adaptation to their needs is the basis of success in every business. In ABR SESTA, we divide this research area into a number of issues.
Customers and shopping behaviour
Analysing customers’ habits and attitudes
U&A Research (Usage and Attitude) is research whose scope encompasses customers’ habits and attitudes regarding selected products. Its goal is to examine the target group by means of consumption-related methods as well as the attitude to the consumption itself.
Research problems analysed in such projects concern primarily:
- product usage and purchase,
- consumption styles,
- purchaser and consumer profile,
- household penetration.
Such research is usually performed by means of quantitative methods, often preceded by exploratory qualitative research.
Analysing the decision-making process and customer preferences
Analyses of customer preferences allow us to discover the customer’s decision-making process concerning the choice of product or service. Understanding the behaviour and needs of customers allows one to meet their expectations, better personalise the offer, and improve communication, thus helping increase sales. Moreover, introducing such information in company strategy enables one to efficiently shape consumption patterns and customer loyalty.
Data concerning consumer behaviour allows to:
- discover the stimuli which trigger the need to purchase
- identify alternative ways to satisfy a need
- classify point of purchase criteria
- recognise third party impact on shopping decisions
- define the efficiency of additional points of sale and other promotions
- analyse customer paths in a category
- determine the optimum shelf share for a product
- analyse the impact of shelf layout on the purchase process
- determine the efficiency of marketing communications at shelf level
- analyse the impact of packaging on the customers’ purchase decisions
- segment customers according to decisions made at shelf level
- define the frequency of purchase
- determine the level of purchase dissonance
What is worth particular attention is the NPVO research, which in combination with assisted purchase provides optimum knowledge regarding behaviour in a given category.
Analysing customer streams and paths
Definition of customer streams and paths in a shop is of substantial importance not only for the shop but also for the vendor. If we know the customer’s path, we can determine the best location to place a hostess, a product island, or find a place for an additional point of sale.
When planning the shop’s marketing communication, we can, thanks to traffic intensity, precisely specify the cost of each communication per one contact. This permits us to focus on the most effective communications. In addition, we can find out which parts of the shop, despite high intensity of traffic, are not good locations for a given communication as the customer’s path indicates that this is the moment when he/she has already made a purchase from the given category.
Main research problems include:
- the order of visiting particular shop departments and product categories,
- determination the intensity of traffic in particular parts of the shop and possible changes stemming from the time of purchase or the day of the week,
- determination of the most effective locations of promotional displays,
- segmentation of customers according to actual purchase behaviour,
- analysis of cross-selling opportunities,
- analysis of the shelf plan’s and floor plan’s impact on the size of sales and the purchase basket structure.
Analysing purchase baskets
Information concerning purchases made by customers is of crucial importance in research regarding their behaviour and expectations. The best source is transaction data combined with information on the customer and his/her purchase history (e.g. from recruitment, loyalty card). Such data may also be collected during customer interviews or from non-participant video observation.
Data concerning the purchase basket allows us, among other things, to draw conclusions regarding:
- average size of basket (vs. part of the day and day of the week),
- penetration of particular categories, brands, and SKUs (stock keeping units),
- co-purchase of categories, brands, and SKUs,
- size of one-off purchases of selected products,
- customer loyalty to brands in several categories,
- social and demographic profile’s impact on basket structure,
- impact of shop location and region of the country on basket structure,
- impact of promotional campaigns on basket structure.
How will you benefit?
Research we conduct in the given area:
Selected references:
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