Shopper Culture

NEW Spring Edition of The Urbanist

This month's issue of The Urbanist discusses the latest shopping trends including:

— Big chains going small

— Car companies going off road

— Redoing retro

— The intel in store.

Click here to read this month's issue or explore past issues at urbanist.integer.com. And don't forget to follow The Urbanist on Twitter for even more urban retail news updates. @_The_Urbanist

Mainstream Retailers Embrace 'Ugly' Food

Whole Foods recently announced a partnership with Imperfect Produce to test-run sales of 'ugly' produce in a few of its Northern California stores, which is set to begin next month. This announcement comes after increasing consumer demands for the food industry and retailers to help eliminate food waste—a petition on change.org specifically called out Whole Foods, as well as Walmart, to take steps towards becoming more inclusive with their produce selections by including more imperfect fruits and vegetables. Giant Eagle has also announced this month that the grocery chain will incorporate 'ugly' produce in 5 Pittsburgh store locations as part of a "Produce with Personality" pilot program.

New Checkout Study: Private Label

Shoppers' migration to private label goods following the 2008 recession wasn't much of a surprise: they offered a cost-cutting option for commonly bought goods where there wasn't a perceived difference in quality (e.g., milk, paper products, OTC's). The prevailing wisdom was that when shoppers started spending more freely, they would switch back to name brands. Instead, retailers started expanding their private label offerings—new categories, product variety, tiered offerings—and shoppers' perception of name brand superiority declined. It now seems as though there is a new normal when it comes to CPG that involves more private label goods in the basket. In fact, 32% of shoppers say they are currently buying more private label brands than before—and only 6.5% (a new low) say they are currently buy more but plan to switch back to name brands in the future.

In this edition of The Checkout, we'll explore the realities of this new private label reality and what it means for name brands. Topics covered include: the core equities that contribute to the private label vs. name brand decision (and how they differ across consumer demographics); how perceptions of name brands have shifted; private label/name brand purchase behavior across income brackets. 

Click here to learn more about private label's new normal in the latest edition of The Checkout. 

Local Goes To The Masses

I often find myself living in two shopping worlds. One that is entirely mass and mainstream–grocery shopping at King Soopers, hitting up Target, Nordstrom Rack and Starbucks or the occasional Friday's in the airport. The other is more niche, local in nature–consisting of finding the best new restaurant, cool boutique, pop up flea market and more.

I feel I am not alone in this as local has evolved and spread its reach, more shoppers are spanning two shopping worlds and shopping mindsets. Having been to my fair share of crowded flea markets, 1-hour-minimum wait restaurants and high priced bars, it seems as though local is an everyday occurrence now. Has it gone to the masses. 

Can Diners Change: Moving to a No-Tipping Culture

Last Fall, Danny Meyer's high-end NYC restaurant The Modern eliminated tipping entirely for servers, coat checks, and anyone else. This "hospitality included" (or HI) system takes the historical average tip revenue and rolls that into menu prices.

A key reason was to make compensation more fair between servers — who usually enjoy all the tip revenue — and other restaurant staff like chefs, who usually get paid far less for equally-demanding work.

Early feedback was positive, and Meyer just rolled out HI to a second restaurant, Maialino. Other restaurants across the country are experimenting with HI too. One Brooklyn group even made a logo to hang in restaurant windows (shown here).

But as reported in The Atlantic, adoption of HI dining has been halting.

Reinventing the Coupon

In our Denver office, we recently had the pleasure of hosting Bryan Leach, Founder and CEO of Ibotta. Leach's entrepreneurial passion for his company was palpable and infectious. He spoke about the important and undeniable dynamic shifts occurring in the digital world and shed an important spotlight on the state of couponing as we've known it for the past umpteen years; think, 50-year-old housewife clipping coupons out of a crusty newspaper. He also talked about the conception and development of a radically new idea for mobile shopping: pay the shopper real cash.

If you haven’t heard of Ibotta, it’s a wildly popular app that allows shoppers to easily earn cash rebates through their mobile devices by completing simple tasks. This means discounts are more readily available and contextually relevant, for digital users.

Customer Satisfaction: Grocery Shopping vs. Internet Retail

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) recently reported declines in customer satisfaction across five different retail industries. Of those, Supermarkets registered their lowest ACSI score in more than 10 years (73).  According to the report, grocery store shoppers were the most unsatisfied with checkout speed (72) and the quality of pharmacy services (76). 

The ACSI also reported that, despite falling a couple points, Internet Retail earned higher customer satisfaction scores than other retail industries. ACSI concluded that shoppers prefer online shopping compared to traditional in-store experiences. This might be an overstatement, because customers could be more satisfied with their online shopping experience vs. in-store experience because they have separate expectations of each.

Light Bulb Explosion!

Anyone been shopping for light bulbs recently? My friend Susan has, and she was so surprised at what she found in the aisle that she posted her experience on Facebook. LED bulbs, halogen bulbs, fluorescent bulbs, incandescent bulbs, and CFL bulbs occupy the shelves. The number of SKUs in the light bulb category has exploded, and it is exponentially harder for the shopper to navigate the aisle and find what they came in to get. And wait, a 40-watt bulb is no longer a 40-watt bulb? Do I need to know calculus to successfully crack the wattage equation? One has to wonder how many shoppers time out and leave the aisle without a purchase because of choice fatigue. The features and benefits have simply become overwhelming. Retailers are missing out on an opportunity to help guide the shopper in their decision-making with simple signage, navigation and educational materials.

Have you bought light bulbs recently? What do you think? We’d love to hear about your experiences instore as well as any research you did before going to the store to help equip you with the knowledge to make a decision.

Image Source: Facebook with permission from poster

Retailers Continue To "Borrow" National Brands' Equities

Walking through an Aldi last week, I saw two oddly-familiar products. 

You'd be forgiven if, at first glance, you also thought these were name brands. 

These are, in fact, Aldi products. They use the Millville brand name for their cereals and Savoritz for their crackers. And these are just two of the many brands Aldi has created, each one playing on the familiar cues of each category.

 

Retailers in Space

If we're all going to be traveling to space soon, then certainly we're going to be buying things in space. This beautiful illustration of a futuristic vacation trip to various planets got me thinking about shopping in space and retailers in space. We all know how much travelers love to shop on vacation.

Who will be the first? With the strides being made by potential commercial space travel, are any retailers already preparing?

To answer these questions, I began an extensive search online. A little surprisingly, I came up empty. The closest I came was finding out that Lowe's recently launched a 3D printer to the International Space Station for their use. I thought perhaps that Coke or Pepsi may have paid to get a vending machine on a NASA space shuttle or a SpaceX mission. Nope, the only thing I discovered was that eBay is selling old little space toys that once were housed in a vending machine. 

Who will be the first retailer in space? Are any talking to SpaceX, or Orbital ATK? If I owned my own store...

Redefining Moment-Based Promotional Occasions: The Blue Monday Example

We all have a friend who (or we), when asked the question, “What are your plans for Valentine’s Day?”, will roll their eyes and reply with the most colorless tone, “I don’t buy into this marketing celebration of consumerism” or something to that effect.

Black Friday, Valentine’s Day, Dry January, Back to School, Halloween… There are now so many occasions created by retailers and marketers in order to price discount, run competitions, and ultimately boost sales. No wonder consumers can be skeptical and dismissive. The wide variety of tools and shopping evolutions (e.g., price comparators, shopping apps, forums, rise of convenience and "locally produced" stores) has evolved consumers’ purchase influencers. Therefore, the relationship between the retailer and its consumers has to change and adapt.

How Fast is Fast Enough: Online Shoppers Expect Delivery Now

Instant gratification has become the consumer expectation, but up until now shoppers have cut shipping some slack. Historically, shoppers exercised patience waiting for their deliveries. Now, that's all changing. According to a new study by Temando, online retailers aren't meeting the needs of online shoppers when it comes to shipping. 80% of shoppers want retailers to a same-day shipping option, yet only 53% of online retailers do. In fact, 61% of shoppers want their packages even faster within 1-3 hours of placing the order, however, merely 23% of online retailers offer that as an option. Temando CEO and co-founder Carl Hartmann says the study exposes a glaring problem. He shared, "consumer expectations are increasing. Retailers aren't offering a full gamut of services that consumers are expecting."

A New Generation of Moms

Get ready! The Millennial generation is taking over as parents. Roughly one in five moms is a Millennial, and nine million of them are raising kids at this very moment. This recent article "8 Things You Need to Know About Millennial Moms" in Pop Sugar highlights eight characteristics of Millennial moms. Below we discuss three of these new Millennial mom traits and share some considerations as they apply to the world of shopping.

 

They have been shaped by technology.

Millennial moms have been shaped by technology since the day they were born. Internet, iPhones and social media are a regular part of their daily diet. They use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and You Tube and average of 17 hours a week, four more hours each week than the average mom according to a report from Weber Shandwick.

New Issue of The Urbanist

The new issue of the Urbanist is kicking off 2016 with the best of what's happening in the world of urban retail.

 

It's covered happenings including: 

— Pop-Ups Becoming More Permanent (e.g., Lands End)

— Innovative Out Of Home Campaigns (e.g., Kit Kat)

— Manuquin Make-overs

— Color Trends

And don't forget to follow us on Twitter (@_The_Urbanist) for even more updates. 

Foodtail

A new generation of chefs is leading daring and innovative culinary associations beyond traditional food pairings. Foodtail is the science of creating surprising and refined associations between delicate food ingredients such as mushrooms, butternut squash, oysters and mandarin orange with spirits including Gin, Cointreau, Absinthe, Martini, Champagne. Foodtail is a source of inspiration for brands in search of product innovations or new brand’ s partnerships. And for shoppers craving for novelty and expertise, foodtail offers ways to discover new flavors and surprising brand's associations.

 Photo Source: Lox Loaded, Buffalo & Burgen, Wasghinton, DC, USA - NellyrodiLab, Paris, France