Quick, what’s a word that begins with the letter ‘S’ that every human being does many times in their lives? It’s shopping (just in case you’ve started imagining something else). Shopping is indeed as basic a human activity as some of its more biological counterparts. This brings us to a fundamental question: Why do people shop?
Studies done globally have managed to classify this complex and heterogeneous activity into four basic types of shopping. They are Recreational Shopping, List Shopping, Item Shopping and Impulse Shopping. This classification is based on two factors: the planned versus spontaneous nature of the shopping trip and the focused versus open-ended nature of the purchases made. Let us examine each of these four types of shopping, with a focus on the Indian shopper and their impact for brands and retailers.
Recreational Shopping: Here the shopping trip is pre-planned but completely open-ended. In fact, it may not even result in a purchase. People like to use shopping as a means to relax or be entertained or just learn and discover and even fantasise. What we call ‘window shopping’. It happens in categories such as apparel, footwear, jewellery, cosmetics and accessories – people go to check out the latest fashions. In the case of gizmos like cell phones, home electronics and PCs, there are lots of shoppers who just browse to keep abreast with technology. A global study by P&G shows that the store is now the second-largest source of information on new products, after television.
The concept of ‘retail therapy’, where people, especially women, shop to bust stress or relax is a part of modern lifestyle. People who can’t ever afford a BMW walk into dealerships for a test drive to fulfill their fantasies. Duty-free shopping at airports is a classic case of shopping for recreation. People also use shopping to socialise. Friends or family making plans to meet up at a mall are commonplace. The mall is also a popular teen hang-out. This is where ‘shoppertainment‘comes in – food and entertainment coupled with shopping.
Retailers and brands must encourage recreational shopping, because more often than not it leads to purchase. It’s a fact that the more time people spend at a store, the more likely they are to buy. Also, even if they don’t buy today they may come back later. Lots of teenagers first check out the new dress they want to purchase with their friends and return later with their parents to buy it.
List Shopping: This is where you pre-plan your shopping with a list and a clear focus on what you will purchase. List Shopping is the bread and butter of the retail industry. Shopping for food and grocery, medicines and home needs come under this. Armed with a shopping list, the shopper is on a mission to acquire the merchandise quickly and with minimum fuss. It is shopping as a chore, as against its more glamorous and exciting cousin, recreational shopping.
Supermarkets and neighbourhood convenience stores are havens for list shoppers. This is the domain of the lady of the house where she fulfils her role as the gatherer and nurturer. An interesting learning here is that in urban, modern retail formats the old habit of monthly shopping for provisions is almost dead. It has given way to the ‘weekly top-up’. There are two key reasons for this. First, with younger homes and working couples, planning on a monthly horizon is impractical and week on week purchasing is more convenient. Secondly, with increased mobility and more people living and working in cities away from their hometowns (the great Indian Diaspora), long-standing relationships with a family kirana merchant is a thing of the past.
Another important trend is the kids and dad accompanying mom on the weekend top-up. Stores need to invent interesting ways to keep dad and kids occupied while mom stocks up. Herein lies a great opportunity to increase the size of the basket by creating attractive selling propositions for products/brands, aimed at the kids and dad. The retail challenge is to take the boredom and routine out of list shopping and transform it into a weekly family activity everyone looks forward to.
Item Shopping: Driven by a spontaneous trigger to shop for a specific item is what item shopping is all about. The trigger could be as mundane as running out of sugar and replenishing it, or as romantic as shopping for an anniversary gift for your better half. Item shopping is most often driven by occasions and events. A foreign holiday is an occasion to buy a Handycam, graduation day an event to pick up a blazer, a new home a reason to get new furniture, arrival of a baby a trigger to pick up a whole bunch of baby care products, a party at home to stock up on booze and an invitation to the Page 3 gala an excuse to buy a designer label.
The retail and marketing industry have become masters at creating events and occasions for item shopping. Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Uncle’s Day, Auntie’s Day, Teacher’s Day, Valentine’s Day – a 365-day shopping jamboree. If list shopping is the bread and butter of the retail business, then item shopping is the jam. The more occasions we can create and control, the merrier.
Impulse Shopping: The most unplanned, spontaneous and open form of shopping is on impulse. It is the shopper at her unpredictable best. Yet, several categories make a living out of it. In confectionery, chocolates, soft drinks and snack foods, impulse buying accounts for almost 60-70 per cent of purchases. Impulse is a huge industry and helps retailers and brands expand the size of shopping basket. More expensive items are also bought on impulse. Two of the largest impulse categories in department stores are women’s footwear and cosmetics.
Though impulse buying is chaotic and unplanned, brands and retailers have discovered ways in which to stimulate it and bring method into the madness. Bins near the cash counter, interesting adjacencies and cross promotions are some of the tactics often used.
However, nothing drives impulse like novelty and variety. Offering new styles, flavours and formats is important and so is sheer variety. In ice cream, planned purchase is driven by vanilla (nearly 60 per cent), but impulse is driven by a range of other flavours (the balance 40 per cent). Kids and teens are big catalysts for impulse buying. Their pester power makes them darlings of the retail industry. All of us have noticed kids popping their favourite eats into mom’s shopping basket, or howling for that gooey chocolate till daddy relents. Brands and retailers need to work out innovative ways of driving impulse and deploy it as a key growth strategy, even for traditionally non-impulse categories.
It is therefore critical for the retailer and brand marketer to understand the type of shopping trips their shoppers make, and work out strategies and tactics to win them. A one shoe fits all approach needs to give way to different strokes for different folks. Before you can influence people to buy, you need to know why they shop.
Note: this article was first published by Anand Narasimha on afaqs.com
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