Earlier this year, iVend Retail conducted its we conducted 2019 Global Shopper Survey to measure changes in consumer attitudes and behaviours. Using these insights, retailers around the world can adjust their marketing and loyalty strategies, as well as their use of mobile and in-store technology to increase sales and improve the consumer experience.
iVend surveyed more than 2,700 shoppers in 11 countries for this year’s survey, measuring attitudes and behaviours related to retail purchase decisions. Here are the results from the shoppers we surveyed in Latin American
Checkout: The Last Chance to Make a Good Impression on Shoppers
The survey asked shoppers what aspects of a retail experience they most value. The number one response by a wide margin was an easy and quick checkout process, with 90% of Latin Americans choosing that response.
A poor checkout experience can leave a lasting impression on consumers, and shoppers prefer approaches that increase convenience and speed at the checkout. Among Latin American shoppers, 29% of respondents said a self-checkout option would make them want to shop with a retailer. And 68% of shoppers responded that they want sales associates to have mobile checkout capabilities on the sales floor.
Omnichannel Commerce
As was the case with shoppers globally, Latin American shoppers are leveraging a combination of online shopping, mobile commerce (mCommerce) and in-store purchases. According to the survey, 93.4% of shoppers report using their smartphones in a store to look up pricing and product information while physically shopping in a store. In addition, 88.6% of respondents “showroom” products, or browse in a store but purchase the item online, while 95.2% of shoppers “webroom”, or browse online before going into a store to purchase an item. These figures are slightly higher than the global averages for these shopping methods.
Buy Online, Pickup in Store
That enthusiasm for omnichannel integration extends to buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS) retail initiatives. In Latin America, 87.8% of shoppers report buying online and picking up items in store. That is 37.8% more than last year, indicating a huge jump in availability of the option and of consumers’ willingness to use it.
Top 3 reasons for using BOPIS options include:
Loyalty Programs Can Drive Purchases
The availability of a robust customer loyalty program is an increasingly important part of driving traffic to both brick-and-mortar and online storefronts. According to the survey, one-third of consumers in Latin America shop with a retailer at least 50% of the time to get loyalty rewards.
Why do shoppers participate in loyalty programs? The top three reasons included:
Retailer Communications
When it comes to receiving communications from a retailer, worldwide shoppers prefer to receive information about product updates, promotions, coupons by email (62.9%), but in Latin America, the preferred method for retailer communications is via a retailer’s app on their smartphone.
When it comes to retail outreach, the top three Latin Americans communication preferences were:
Latin Americans’ smartphones are highly connected to the shopping experience, from researching products to managing loyalty programs and receiving communications or special offers from retailers.
For retailers that want to increase their business in this region, the emphasis should be on creating a connected, integrated system to handle these demands for a seamless mobile commerce and omnichannel shopping experience.
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