European Shopping Trend: Quick is King for Consumers

This year’s iVend Retail Global Shopper Survey found some interesting European shopping trends. European shoppers value convenience and speed, when it comes to selecting a retailer to shop with, however, they are not necessarily as enamoured with advanced technology like augmented reality or virtual reality as the rest of the world.

European consumers want to complete their purchases as quickly as possible. When asked what aspects of a shopping experience they valued most most, 81.2% of European shoppers responded with quick and easy checkout. They also want to be able to complete those purchases anywhere in the store, with 39% of respondents stating that they want to be able to checkout with a store associate using a mobile device.

Emphasising the importance that the checkout experience has when it comes to future customer loyalty, 54% of shoppers said self checkouts made them want to shop with a retailer.

While Europeans are driven by convenience, they have not taken to the notion of buying online and picking up in a store (BOPIS/click and collect) as quickly as shoppers in other regions. According to the survey, 73% of European shoppers have used click and collect options making it one of the biggest European shopping trends of the year. Though, that is 8% less than the global average number of shoppers who currently do so.

Of those shoppers that have used it, they are primarily focused on saving time and money. According to the survey, 32.4% of shoppers use it to save time and 47.2% use it to avoid paying shipping charges on their online orders.

While they aren’t bowled over by fancy technology like augmented reality, European shoppers do appreciate technology that adds convenience or value. When in a store, 59% of respondents would like store associates to have handheld mobile devices to provide customer service.

In addition, 34% would like to store employees to be able to order items for them to ship directly to their house, and 32% said viewing inventory and product availability at other store locations was important.

Globally, consumers are embracing loyalty cards – retailers that create well-crafted programmes are reaping the benefits in repeat business. According to this year’s European shopping trends nearly one-third (32%) of Europeans shop with a retailer to earn loyalty rewards or points at least half of the time.

Shoppers listed a number of reasons for participating in those loyalty schemes. They survey found that 77.6% of shoppers do so to get discounts and free items, while 28% said they did so to get exclusive product updates and information.

European shopping trends reveal that consumers want a convenient and quick trip to the store, so retailers should focus on technology that can enable faster check-out, and leverage mobile technology to enable service anywhere on the store floor. Because of the relatively lower adoption rates of click and collect, there is likely an opportunity to implement these programmes as an additional way to save time (and money) for these shoppers.

Finally, make a loyalty and rewards card available to drive more shoppers to to your brand, as Europeans — like shoppers worldwide — appreciate the personalised experience and potential rewards that these programmes can generate.

It’s time to invest in an omnichannel strategy that connects with your customers and iVend Retail can help. Reach out today to schedule a demonstration of our enterprise class solution.