Digital marketing agency iProspect analyzed the shopping behaviors of well-off consumers in a recent study in an attempt to understand how they shop—6,220 affluent male and female adults between the ages of 21 and 74, to be exact. The company found one overarching conclusion: Shoppers want and expect to be able to use digital channels to make more informed purchases and to make shopping more convenient. And some retailers, the research concludes, are getting it right.
76% of those surveyed research online before buying and 36% compare prices and look up product information while in a retail store via their smartphones. And a whopping 93% look up information on products and services online at least once a month. Additionally 55% shop online using a smartphone or tablet.
Despite the broad trend to use the Internet at some point during a shopping trip, age and gender does play a role in how shoppers use the web and mobile web when shopping, the study concludes.
For example:
- 53% of male millennials (ages 21 to 34 years old) with a household income between $75,000 and $150,000 compare prices and look up product information while in a retail store via their smartphones compared with 38% of males 39 to 45 years old and only 18% of males 50 to 74 years old.
- 38% of male millennials with a household income between $75,000 and $150,000 make purchases via mobile devices while store shopping, versus just 6% of males with the same income who are between the ages of 50 and 74 years old.
- Millennial females with household incomes between $75,000 and $150,000 particularly still enjoy browsing in stores (82%), while older men between 50 and 74 making the same income least enjoy it at 47%.
- Millennial females with household incomes between $75,000 and $150,000 are also most loyal to brands or stores if they are rewarded for their loyalty, as 85% prefer to buy and use brands that reward them for their business.
- Millennial males with household incomes of more than $150,000 use desktop and laptop computers the least to research products and get information at 62% while women between 50 and 74 with the same income use computers the most at 89%
- Just 25% of females ages 50 to 74 with home income above $150,000 check out prices on their mobile phones.
- 78% millennial males with household income between $75,000 and $150,000 regularly read product reviews on smartphones or tablets, while the same percentage of female millennials with income over $150,000 do so.
One retailer getting the digital-to-store connection right, iProspect says, is high-end apparel and accessories brand Tory Burch. For example, the retailer now uses what it calls Apple iPad ClientBooks in-store, which enable store associates to access customer information such as past purchases and the price range of previous products bought so they can provide a customized shopping trip in stores.
“ClientBook is the type of technology that we want to use to enable an authentic relationship between our brand and our customer, however she wants to shop,” says Matt Marcotte, senior vice president for global retail at Tory Burch.
Banana Republic, part of Gap Inc., No. 19 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, is also highlighted in the iProspect report. Gap is correctly merging store and web by touting on its e-retail site the convenience and time-saving benefits of reserving online items in its stores, the report says. Just recently, it called out the feature on the home page, iProspect says. Shoppers can select a size and store location to hold inventory.
“We know that our customers today have more access to brands than ever before, and so they shop in many different ways,” says Roy Hunt, senior vice president of stores and operations for Banana Republic. “‘Reserve in Store’ is just one way that we can help integrate the shopping experience, and make it easy for our customers.”
Its sister brand the Gap is also using stores to drive sales via its e-commerce site. Like Banana Republic, Gap also lets a shopper put an item on hold without having to buy the item first. Consumers receive a confirmation text on their mobile phone when their product is set aside. Additionally it lists nearby store locations, phone numbers and hours, and updates online inventory every 30 minutes.
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