Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

The OgilvyAction study examined how shopper decisions differ across shopping channels, product categories, and brands, and shows how those decisions vary by country and shopper profile.

After interviewing 6,800 shoppers in 700 retail outlets globally, SDMIS determined that most of shoppers’ purchase decisions are made in store. Some of the most compelling findings include:

• Nearly 30 percent of shoppers around the world wait until they’re in the store to decide which brand they will buy.
• In addition, one in 10 shoppers change their minds in the store and buy a different brand than what they had planned.
• In the United States, almost one in five shoppers leave a product they planned to buy on the shelf and walk away empty-handed.

Jeff Froud, senior strategic planner at OgilvyAction and head of the SDMIS project, says that the results mean that marketers need to use the stores more effectively as vehicles to build sales. In doing so, they need to understand the different kinds of decisions that shoppers are making, and then be able to generate insights that will help them develop smarter and more targeted programs to activate their brands in store.

Froud says this means that marketers have to start building consumer insights into their campaigns. “Understand the occasion a shopper buys for…and develop an event platform around giving them more reasons to consume the product,” he says. “Leverage your brand in a category centric way. If a brand doesn’t take that approach, a retailer will surely shut its doors quickly.”