How Best To Serve Channel-Hopping Shoppers

The results from our global shopper survey are in and – it’s official – consumer motivations during the shopping experience are complex and varied, as well as being inconsistent across the globe.

Our New Report Shows The Challenges Facing Retailers Due To Fast-Changing Consumer Behaviours – Be Among The First To Receive A Copy

Our 2018 Global Path to Purchase survey has highlighted some fascinating behaviours by shoppers around the world, which we think make critical reading for retailers and technology companies alike as they aim to offer the products, services and solutions that help increase customer satisfaction.

Channel-hopping shopping

An overwhelming majority of shoppers around the world, 91%, browse online before intending to make a purchase in a store, according to the report. This process known as ‘webrooming’ is undertaken primarily because people want to take time over their purchase decision.

Whereas 54% of shoppers around the world webroom because they want to deliberate over their purchase, 39% do so to check stock and avoid a wasted trip to the store.

These behaviours highlight to retailers how shoppers view a retailer’s online and store operations holistically, and as integrated channels. If the website says it’s available in a store then retailers better make sure that is, otherwise they are going to have some seriously disappointed consumers to contend with.

For me, it proves the value of retailers implementing integrated retail management suites that combine both online, store and buy-online-collect-in-store systems. Anyone looking to sell their tech into the industry should really be considering this type of solution.

Taking their tablets

Our research shows that 53% of global consumers will look for sales associates holding tablet devices when they enter a store because they view this as beneficial in various ways.

Some 24% want store associates to use tablets because they believe they’ll receive a faster service, while 24% and 23% respectively use this mobile point of sale format to ask staff to look up product information or check inventory availability.

With shoppers keen to access this type of service in store, retailers will need to deliver joined-up retail experiences that help solve customer queries and problems.

These communication windows between retailer and customer are a real opportunity to convert a sale, upsell, or perhaps even offer an alternative fulfilment method that better suits the shopper – but an integrated retail management suite is a prerequisite if the process is to work successfully.

Helping retailers stay competitive

Based on the multiple ways global shoppers are now interacting with retailers, all of which are neatly illustrated in our latest report, it is clear today’s path to purchase is not as linear as it was in the past. The shopper journey is no longer a simple case of leaving the house and visiting a store.

Against this backdrop, technology companies looking to sell their solutions into retailers should be working with sophisticated retail management system providers that tick all the boxes for modern retailing – and we at iVend Retail are confident we do just that.

Retailers are quickly realising that without a comprehensive, integrated, and state-of-the-art retail management suite, they’ll be unable to compete when it comes to meeting shopper expectations. Technology companies teaming up with iVend Retail ensure this is exactly what they deliver the industry, as it faces up to the ever-growing demands of the modern, switched-on consumer.

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