Extending Shopper Insights : Understanding Cultural Dynamics

Most researchers engaged in shopper insights today focus far too narrowly on specific psychological and physical behavioral aspects of the shopping experience. To remedy the situation, we propose expanding the boundaries of shopper insights to encompass the full range of consumer attitudes and behaviors that bear on shopping. Taking a more holistic view than is generally the case means placing shopping behavior in the widest possible cultural context before trying to learn anything from it. Ironically, many investigators of shopping behavior tend to do the opposite, focusing intently on the data surfaced by this or that magic bullet research method of the month: Attaching sensors to shopping carts to track their movements through the store, as if the mere physical location of these carts will shed new light on the actions of shoppers: While it might seem painfully obvious that shopping is done by consumers and not by carts, this simple fact appears lost in the interpretation of shopping cart data. Armed only with cart locations, we cannot say much about the shopping that occurs away from the cart. Recording the observed minutiae of shopper behaviors, as if we can infer the how and why of shopping from disjointed motions: No one would suggest in-store ergonomics are irrelevant, but are the center store woes of today's mainstream grocer really the result of careless engineering? Tracking the timing of various marketing efforts and product sales, as if the two were mechanically linked: No doubt consumers respond predictably to price manipulations, but are these manipulations truly influencing shopper behavior or are they simply training consumers to time their purchases in anticipation of price drops? Sales lift might be a better indication of how much consumers delay purchases to take advantage of a fully expected promotion than a measure of the promotion's ability to stimulate sales. Studying the store environment alone, as if consumer reactions to the sensory cues of a physical space had no social or cultural underpinnings: The same shopper who revels in the environment created by Costco can delight in the environment that Trader Joe's embodies, despite their very different physical presentations. Importantly, the cultural context of shopping connects directly to the routines of everyday life. Common household tasks oriented to cleaning, grooming and eating all have significant implications for what consumers buy, where they shop, when they go and how long they take. The evening meal, for example, may prompt a quick detour on the way home from work to pick up some items at a nearby grocery store. Depending on circumstances, the same need might be met by dining in the store. These and countless other routine (and not-so-routine) activities frame the specific household task we call shopping. Knowing how shopping fits into the daily routine of consumers is key to understanding shopping behavior