Price trumps every other consideration when consumers are deciding where to shop, with 71% of respondents naming price as a key factor in selecting a grocery destination, according to a study released by Revionics, Austin, Texas.
Today’s price-savvy shoppers want the best deal, and 34% report searching for coupons or promotions in store before making a purchase. While 54% say they compare prices online across different retailers, they do generally expect to see different prices online vs. in store. But, when it comes to grocery, 69% (75% U.S. respondents) said they expect in-store prices to be the same or lower than those available online.
While shoppers compare prices online, they still respond most actively to promotions provided in the store; 20% say they only pay attention to in-store promotions, while only 12% say they only pay attention to promotions on a store’s website.
Since 52% of shoppers report receiving promotions for items that they would have paid full price for and 47% receive promotional offers they never use, it’s clear that promotional waste (and lost margins) is rampant. Fortunately, today’s machine learning-based analytics can determine which items retailers need to price competitively on and what items they can recover margin.
When it comes to the type of offers U.S. shoppers like, the most popular is percent off (65%), followed by coupons (42%).
Meanwhile, 78% of shoppers say they trust science more than humans to give them a fair price.
The study, conducted by Forrester Consulting, Cambridge, Mass., surveyed respondents in United States, UK, France, Germany and Brazil.