There's no doubt I always harp about how you have to know your customer's current mindset. It's critical, because as culture and economies change, so do consumer attitudes.
There's also no doubt today's shopper is more cautious with spending. As has also been suspected for some time, and proven in many surveys, the primary shopper and home finance decision maker is female. Here's some new shopping data from a survey recently conducted by Miller/Zell.
Perhaps not surprisingly, increases in pre-store purchase planning
and Internet research before shopping indicates shoppers are coming to
the retail store more armed with knowledge of pricing, product
capabilities and competitor products:
- 60% of respondents are doing more pre-planning before shopping trips than they were a year ago.
- 44% say they are doing more online research than they were a year ago (42% of men and 45% of women).
The Internet is the researcher's dream weapon. Everyone who uses the Internet is doing some form of research.
At least two out of five respondents are spending less on most
categories tested except grocery, where 46% are spending the same as
before, and 16% are spending more, the survey found.
Miller Zell noted that this could be a result of higher prices and/or
more decisions to eat at home. In terms of other categories with large
decreases in spending, 61% of respondents are spending less in
electronics and 64% are spending less in apparel.
In terms of dining out and entertainment, 68% of survey respondents
say they are doing more “insourcing” of out-of-home dining and half
have brought special occasions or family nights into the home that they
previously enjoyed out:
- Special occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries are the most
likely to be brought into the home, followed by family night.
- Guys’ and girls’ nights out are the two events least likely to be brought into the home.
When profiling downgraders, Miller Zell found, age and income have
very little variance from the overall sample, while women have a higher
likelihood be downgraders, specifically in eating at home, downgrading
grocery and department stores, and going from specialty retailers to
value mass merchants.
Despite behaviors that indicate they are buckling down now, respondents
in all gender, age and wage categories indicate greater optimism (as
represented by increased expected future spend) six months from now
than currently, the survey found.
If you are female and reading this now either on our blog, web site or my Facebook page, I'm interested in your comments and thoughts. Agree or disagree?