Shopper Culture

Collecting Shopper Data for the Shopper

73% of smartphone owners are concerned about personal data collection. 55% are wary of sharing information about their location. (NielsenWire.com)

That’s a lot of people who, in good faith, are limiting the data they choose to share, therefore limiting the potential of having better shopping experiences. In the world of big data and data collection, it’s critical that brands and retailers continue to push forward and use the information they collect to not only drive sales, but to improve and maintain positive relationships with shoppers.

DOOH and the Omnichannel Shopper—What You Missed at the DSE 2013

Integer's own Amy Vollet attended the Digital Sign Expo this past February and lead group discussions on:

Cultivating Connections with Today's Omnichannel Shoppers 

Digital Out Of Home (DOOH) and The Changing Media Landscape

The presentations is available for download on the presentations tab as well as other presentations from fellow Integerites.

Enjoy!

Burberry Introduces Smart Personalization for Shoppers

For the launch of its new Fall/Winter 2013 womenswear collection, the London fashion house Burberry created a seamless digital shopping experience. Following a similar principle to the Topshop “Enter the Catwalk” campaign, which provided viewers with live-streamed footage of the show and customization features, The Burberry smart personalization allows shoppers to browse and shop for items they like straight from the catwalk via their mobile devices.

Once an order is placed, shoppers receive tailor-made outerwear and bags with personalized, engraved nameplates. Shoppers are also invited to virtually

Price Conscious Shoppers Still Celebrate With Their Loved Ones

Today is a day meant to celebrate loved ones – not only significant others, but all those in our life who we hold dear to us. I still enjoy making homemade cut-out heart cards for my family and friends and, according to the National Retail Federation Valentine's Day Spending Survey, 61 percent of shoppers are also planning to celebrate the day through time spent together with their loved ones and gifts this Valentine’s Day. This year, shoppers will spend approximately $130.97 on Valentine’s Day, which is slightly more than last year.

But while shoppers are spending a tad more on gifts for significant others, friends, family, and pets, they are still keeping close tabs on their wallets. Price and value are on consumers’ minds as they search for last-minute promotions this Valentine’s Day, with 39.6 percent of shoppers shopping at discount stores, according to CBS News. The biggest selling items this year, according to National Retail Federation, are traditional Valentine’s Day gifts including candy, flowers, and jewelry. Although 51 percent of gift givers will give candy and only 19.6 percent will give jewelry, this still stacks up to more than $4.4 billion spent on diamonds for the holiday.

As shoppers are searching to find the best gift at the best price, they are focusing on spending a little more time to compare products and prices across retailers as well as across devices. The National Retail Federation Survey states that 41 percent of smartphone owners plan to use their mobile devices to shop for gifts, while 47 percent of tablet owners will purchase and research gifts with their tablets.

While shoppers are searching and making careful decisions on how to spend their dollars this year, those buying are also looking forward to simply celebrating with their loved ones. What are your plans for Valentine’s Day 2013?

The Second Screen Adds Engagement to Super Bowl Ads

After an eventful Super Bowl XLVII, which included two brothers pitted against each other, Beyonce’s halftime show, the power outage, and the 49ers (almost) rallying, today it’s all about recapping the ads. According to Ad Age, fans eagerly awaiting the 2013 ads were not looking to connect with a brand; rather audiences simply wanted to be entertained. The entertainment this year was brought to audiences by extending the ads onto a second screen. For example, the Coca-Cola Mirage ads added in some humorous competition plus engaged audiences via mobile. As MediaPost points out, we might start seeing more of the creative and engaging side of the Super Bowl ads taking place on a second screen. The first screen might then be used as a teaser to encourage user involvement.

The key to asking audiences to engage further with your brand on a second screen is being sure the payoff is enough. For the Coca-Cola Mirage campaign, users were able to not only vote for their preferred team, but also were able to sabotage the opposition. This addition cleverly turned the ad from a poll to a game and heightened the personalization for players.

Overall, using mobile might be the future of drawing audiences’ attention during the Super Bowl. The potential for personalization, along with a choose your own adventure component also sets brands up nicely for follow-up engagement with consumers.

In the end, the audience chose the Showgirls to win the race for the Coke, but there is a lot of discussion about which ads stole the show. Which ads were your favorites for Super Bowl XLVII?

 

Shopper Culture 2012: A Year in Review

In case you missed it; here’s what happened on Shopper Culture during 2012.

Market Posts Demonstrating Seasonal Agility

In this digital age, shoppers are thirsty for real-time ‘newness’ in the market. Seasonal fun appears to be one way retailers and brands are keeping things fresh. This year we saw more Super Bowl activity in store, innovative Valentine’s Day merchandise in Asia, retailers embracing less publicized holidays (National Mom’s Night Out) and brands playing in to current events like the election.

Shopper Posts Highlighting Behavioral Economics in Marketing

Psychological concepts such as social proof became hot topics for shopper marketers this year. Various posts demonstrate how these concepts have manifested in the market in the form of popularity and scarcity messaging—especially during the holidays.

Retailers Look to ecommerce This Holiday Season

With the holidays just around the corner, the usual hustle and bustle of shopping is expected to begin. Shoppers searching for just the right gifts, deals, and promotions up until the last minute can lead to a hectic holiday season.  But this year, more and more shoppers might not brave the crowded brick-and-mortar stores, but instead plan on buying gifts behind the safety of their screens. 

According, to eMarketer^TM, U.S. retailers with a web presence expect 51 percent of their holiday sales to come from eCommerce. This means that retailers are pushing to discover new ways to suit the needs of these convenience-seeking shoppers. One solution is to amp up the holiday deals by engaging shoppers through social media. Retailers are planning to take full advantage of Facebook^(R) and Twitter^(R) this holiday season, with 86 percent focusing on holiday promotions on Facebook.  One of the most desired promotions that more than a third of Facebook merchants expect to offer is free shipping, which highlights the opportunity for retailers to find key places to insert convenience for gift-givers and play up those spaces this holiday season.   

The question is, do you think these digital shopper behaviors will linger on after the holidays?

Contributed by Jillian Kyle

Chart Source: eMarketer

Hyperpersonalization

RED BAR: TRACKING THE TRENDS

This is an exciting time for brands, retailers and shoppers. As our technological devices become smarter, so has our ability to better understand them and offer shoppers what they truly want to buy, not just what we want to sell. Consumption is no longer curated solely by arbiters of style, but also by our own previous purchase information. Here are some examples of hyperpersonalization in action:

Click here to read more examples of hyperpersonalization including "Hyperpersonal Hidden Messages", a mobile app from Kraft Foods' Lacta brand:

Lacta Mobile App - English from LactaFilms on Vimeo.

Click here to read past issues of The Integer Pulse. 

Strappy Technology Helps Brands Reach Tokyo Commuters

Many subway riders spend their commutes glued to their mobile phones, which makes in-transit mobile media a lucrative opportunity for brands to connect with shoppers. 

Until recently, underground signal issues might have impeded this type of technology in subways. But networks are working to overcome this hurdle, and advertisers are already tapping in to this mobile opportunity. 

The latest in-transit media technology, Strappy, comes from printing company Shunkosha. Strappy is a cover that fits over subway hand straps and uses a near-field communication (NFC) reader to give passengers access to content simply by holding their mobile phones over it. Advertisers can provide various types of content to passengers including websites, coupons, and videos. 

Because the Tokyo subway transports over 8 million passengers daily, Strappy could be a great way for brands to reach a very wide—and captive—shopper base.

Contributed by Integer Asia-Pacific

Photo Source: Shunkosha 

Shoppers Respond to QR Codes that Deliver Value

The first time I saw a QR code was on the corner of a Lion King poster in a New York City subway. Though I had no clue what it was, my friend eagerly whipped out her BlackBerry, ready to give her recently downloaded QR code reader a test drive.

QR Codes (short for Quick Response Codes) like the one I saw on the subway popped up everywhere in 2011, from subways to product packaging, magazines to department stores, and even on cookies. It was so popular that it seemed like brands slapped codes on everything without thinking about how it would be used and its value to the shopper. 

For example, Austin-based restaurant Juan in a Million sports a QR code on their dine-in menu. When scanned, the code takes you to a Google map of the restaurant’s location. How does this bring value to the customer if they’re already there? As awareness of QR Codes grew, I felt as though many brands were misusing them. I saw a QR code on a highway billboard once. How am I supposed to scan that at 65 mph? The many QR code failures frustrated me. However, one year later, I think that some brands are finally getting it right.

The Checkout: Mobile Shopping Behaviors

Shoppers in the US have evolved significantly in the past few years in the realm of digital shopping tools. So much so, that the term "The Digital Shopper" has effectively lost meaning as about half of all shoppers in the country have adopted some type of digital behavior to aid in their shopping.  As many of the tools in this space are related to the boom in smart phones, mobile shopping tools are of special interest.

In this issue we take a look at many aspects of mobile and other digital shopping behaviors across different shopper segments to understand which shoppers are adopting what tools and how they are using them. What are the differences and similarities across gender or cultures and what is the impact of children in the household?

For example:

• Almost as many shoppers are using coupons from email and enewsletters (49%) as they are clipping them from the Sunday paper (57%).
• Men might be the traditional lovers of tech toys, but in using technology to enhance shopping, women are ahead of the curve.
• Having children in the household drives accelerated adoption of digital technologies to deliver shopping solutions.
• African-American and Hispanic shoppers adopt new shopping technologies at a faster rate than Caucasians do.

Click here to download the Mobile Shopping Behaviors Issue of The Checkout.

Integer Nordic Releases The Checkout 2012, Part 1

The Nordic Checkout 2012, Part 1 is the second iteration of The Nordic Checkout study. This release is the first of four parts for 2012. The study was conducted in partnership with Research Insight in Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. All in all, 2,000 shoppers were interviewed in March of 2012. This issue covers Nordic shopper profiles (the Price Seeker is shown below), as well as digital and mobile behaviors. 

You can download The Nordic Checkout here.

Contributed by Integer Nordic

Didn't Go To The Gym: That'll Be $5

Ever heard of putting a quarter in the jar for saying a swear word? Now apply that to failing to follow through on your New Year’s resolution. 

With the new year rolling in, many people resolve to lead a healthier life, whether it’s eating better or losing weight. And just like all other years, most Americans’ enthusiasm and commitment will begin to decline as the year moves on. According to PRWeb.com, recent University of Illinois research shows this is due to a cognitive disconnect called “self-efficacy,” a confidence needed to succeed.

But this year, one particular tool to help people commit stood out. Instead of a brand promising success, why not make the shopper commit to themselves? The mobile app, Gym-Pact, actually fines individuals for failing to exercise. When a user signs up, they have to determine two things: 1) How many days a week they will commit to visiting the gym, and 2) How much money per missed visit they’ll chalk up. Then with the use of smartphone technology, users simply check-in every time they make a trip. 

 “Behavioral economics show that if you tie cash incentives to things that are concrete and easy to achieve like getting to the gym, it’s very effective,” said co-founder Yifan Zhang in an interview with the New York Times. “People don’t like losing money and it’s one of the strongest motivators, much more than winning money.”

And if that wasn’t enough, users are rewarded with cash for following through with their commitments. Of course, paid out by those who failed. While Gym-Pact is certainly not for everybody, it’s an interesting twist on the psychology behind New Year’s resolutions is intriguing. Instead of prompting the user with a less actionable "New Year, New You,” it gives them something to lose. 

 For more information on New Year’s Resolutions around health and wellness, download a copy of The Checkout - Issue 7, 2011.

Turning Subways into Stores

In August, Tesco pioneered the use of subway platforms as virtual stores in Seoul (partly because they ran out of real estate for new stores). Chinese online supermarket Yihodian.com then installed walls in 15 subway stations in Shanghai. P&G launched a similar system in Prague with Mall.cz, the Czech Republic's largest e-tailer.

Now Sears is launching holiday toy walls in airports, movie theaters, and bus stations in the US.

One implication is that any 2D surface (outdoor, wild posting, ambient, print) can become a storefront. There's a new choice in these spaces: advertise or merchandise?

But these programs also reveal something about how humans work. Why doesn't Tesco just use that wall to say, "Shop thousands of products, right this minute, right on your phone"? Why the need to choose 200 or so SKUs and post life-size 2D depictions of them on the walls? 

Our brains need familiar schema, comfortable metaphors, and visual stimuli to spur action. It's why the email symbol is still an envelope, and why 'the red carpet' means star treatment, even if it's two meters long and not very different from the regular passenger boarding lane at Gate A18.

PMA Presentation - Dating The Mobile Shopper

The Integer Group's Director of Mobile, Ben Kennedy, recently spoke at the PMA's Digital Shopper Summit. Focusing on the ways marketers can strategically approach the mobile channel and establish a long term dialogue with their consumer base, Ben presented Dating The Mobile Shopper, a framework to contextualize the mobile investment. Click here to download the presentation and read more.