Shopping Destination Decision Factors
Once a consumer has researched a purchase, she will then consciously or unconsciously decide where she plans to make the purchase. There are several factors that influence the decision of where to shop. A simple representation of these factors is:
Store choice = Distance + Experience + Value + In-Stock Trust + New!
Let’s examine each of these factors:
Distance – the distance from where I am (now). A familiar factor in deciding where to shop is a convenient location—with “convenient” defined as being close to where the shopper lives or will be located today. The store chosen may not always be the closest to one’s home, but it may be conveniently located near the shopper’s workplace or kid's school--wherever you have to drive today. A shopper will also bundle several shopping destinations into one trip making a drive to a distant shopping destination more convenient by visiting several stores in that area on the same trip.
Getting a shopper to buy online removes the distance factor—increasingly brick and mortar retailers are trying to get consumers to buy online while researching products to avoid losing a sale to another retailer’s brick and mortar store. Brands are launching ecommerce sites to lock in a sale during the research process and remove the store choice issue altogether.
Experience – The shopper’s prior experience with a store. The shopper’s experience with a store and resulting loyalty can be a key factor in shifting the shopping destination from a conscious choice to an automatic choice. Overtime, the shopper forms a habit of shopping in a preferred store for different items. The experience components that influence this loyalty include: a clean neat store, a store that is easy to shop, sales people that are available, friendly, helpful and knowledgeable and short lines at checkout. (…plus: good value and in-stock trust which we will cover separately). A store that has a preferred experience for one product category may not be preferred for other product category, but shoppers may one-stop-shop for convenience rather than driving to shop in two stores for two different categories.
Value – Value for the money is a factor that can change week to week, so while it is part of a store’s experience, we consider it a separate factor in the store destination decision. A store may have an everyday low price approach or a high-low promotional approach to pricing. Consumers can be persuaded to switch stores based on an advertised price promotion. At a reduced price point, a consumer may decide to switch from their preferred store to capture a lower price at an alternate store. At some point in their evaluation, a shift in price shifts the value equation enough to favor the new destination.
In-Stock Trust – Shoppers expect that most stores will have their preferred brands and products in stock—but they also learn which stores are more likely to carry a broad assortment of brands and products vs. those which just carry a few staples in a category. Aldi and Kroger both sell groceries, but their assortments are significantly different. Consumers will shop at stores that they trust to have the product they want in stock. For a more involved purchase where a consumer has spent hours online researching a specific product model, they are also likely to research where they can find the product in stock.
New! – New! is a factor that can trump all habitual shopper behavior. It can be a new store that a consumer tries or news that prompts a special trip to a destination. This can be a special event, an unusual sale, or an invitation from a friend to go shopping to a destination. New! is a factor that can be harder to influence competitively, but can offer potential opportunity if leveraged well.
What can you influence?
So given these five factors that drive the shopping destination choice, what can a brand marketer do to help influence a decision to drive consumers to the stores of their retail partners?
The best way to remove the distance factor is to gain distribution in all major retailers for your product category. This is a worthwhile goal. We previously noted that offering an ecommerce site of your own and/or gaining distribution on multiple retailer ecommerce sites can pre-empt the distance factor by completing the sale online.
Influencing the store experience for the stores that distribute your product can be difficult. Retailers want to control the in-store experience. One key option here is to help educate that store’s sales representatives on your products. Work with your retailers to identify their preferred method to have you participate in educating their staff. Demos and in-store events are other opportunities to enhance the everyday shopping experience for your products.
Influencing the value equation can be done through a variety of price and non-price promotions. Work with your retailers to create promotional advertising to engage and direct your brand’s shoppers to their stores. Learn how to leverage social media and mobile apps to increase visibility of your brand value.
Influencing the in-stock trust factor can be best achieved by gaining distribution of your most popular products with the key retailers in your category. For many categories, also offering your products online allows you to sell your entire product line—and offer all the SKU’s that a brick and mortar store may not carry. Store finders and Google search are increasingly being used by shoppers on mobile devices to find where to buy the products shoppers want.
Influencing the New! factor takes creativity on your part. Work with your retailers to create news and excitement to drive traffic to these stores. Department stores used to be the leaders in having weekly in-store events to attract shoppers. What will you create?
Why is this store choice decision important?
For a brand marketer, a shopper’s choice to shop in a store that does not stock your product is in effect a choice not to buy your product. You can alter this outcome by gaining broad distribution in all stores that a shopper is likely to consider or you can work with your brand’s retailers to help attract shoppers to their stores.
In the third and last part of this blog, we will look at in-store influences that you can use to win the purchase decision at retail.
GrowthSpring Group is a market research, marketing strategy and innovation firm focused on accelerating your sales and profit growth. We help you identify new business growth insights & opportunities and execute winning strategies & plans. www.GrowthSpringGroup.com
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