Back to in-store shopping?

 

Black Friday has come and gone and it would appear that many people headed back to stores to mark the occasion.  According to Mastercard SpendingPulse which tracks all types of payments including cash and credit cards, retail sales surged by 29.8% through mid-afternoon. 

The Mall of America said that shoppers were up from last year, but a bit shy of 2019 numbers.  (Arbel & D'Innocenzio, 2021)

Considering many people were frightened enough by outages and shipping issues to shop early this year  (61% according to the National Retail Federation), those numbers are very impressive.

The question of course is why  - when many people consider shopping online to be faster, cheaper and easier.

Some shoppers were looking for hard to find items that they had been unable to buy online.  While another said: "I'm tired of not going out."  (Nassauer, 2021)

There must be other reasons, mostly emotional as we have learned. 

So, why do you think shoppers are going back to brick and mortar stores this holiday season?  Have you?  Why or why not?

 

Arbel, T. & D'Innocenzio, A. (2021, November 26)  Retail sales surged this Black Friday, though the day's impact is diluted.  npr.org.  Retrieved November 30, 2021, from https://www.npr.org/2021/11/26/1059427267/retail-sales-surged-this-black-friday-though-the-days-impact-is-diluted

 

Nassauer, S. (2021, November 29) Black Friday Bought Shoppers Back to Stores.  wsj.com.  Retrieved November 30, 2021, from  https://www.wsj.com/articles/black-friday-brought-shoppers-back-to-stores-11638111602

Why do people abandon their online carts?

 

Research tells us that ~ 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned.  (Dopson, 2021)

 

Wow.  That's higher than I thought it would be. 

 

The question is why?

 

According to recent research from the Baymard Institute, the top five reasons are:

·         Extra costs too high (55%)

·         Account is required (34%)

·         Checkout is too long (26%)

·         Unclear pricing (21%)

·         Don't trust the site (17%)

 

I have to wonder why anyone would put something in a cart in the first place if they thought the site was untrustworthy.

 

But I also can't help noticing how rational these reasons are when we know that all purchase decisions are emotional.

 

So what are the real reasons people abandon their carts?

 

One thought is that perhaps they never intended to buy the items in the first place and were merely fantasizing about what they would buy if they could afford to. 

 

Or maybe putting stuff in their carts is just a new hobby - a way to fight quarantine fatigue.

 

But they could just be too anxious to complete the transaction even though they initially intended to. (Schultz, 2021)

 

What do you think?  Why do people abandon their online carts?  Why do you?

 

 

Dopson, E. (2021, June 23) 30+ Shopping Cart Abandonment Statistics (and Strategies for Recouping Lost Sales)  shopify.com.  Retrieved November 24, 2021, from https://www.shopify.com/blog/shopping-cart-abandonment

 

Schultz, R. (2021, November 22)  Fear of Checkout: Emotional Reasons For Cart Abandonment.  mediapost.com.  Retrieved November 23, 2021, from  https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/368881/fear-of-checkout-emotional-reasons-for-cart-aband.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline&utm_campaign=124390&hashid=NP_mYr1corR1rsVdWTtA9zohHug

 

 

Do you shop for groceries online? Are you a Millennial?

My neighborhood used to have a 24/7 Korean deli on every corner.  Most of them are gone now.

My local supermarket, formally a Food Emporium, is now a Morton-Williams store.  They have remade the store entirely and in the process have narrowed the aisles so much that one cart barely makes it through, never mind two.  And even with just a basket, I find it uncomfortable and claustrophobic to shop there.  So I surmised that people probably aren't actually shopping there.

Therefore I was less surprised then I might have been when I saw that a new study from Clavis Insight found that 90% of Millennials shop for groceries online.  The figure drops to 84% for Gen Xers; still high enough to take note.  (Berk, 2017)

In fact, it brings a whole new meaning to the familiar phrase - "Who Moved My Cheese?"  Time for grocery stores to beef up their online/mobile game. 

Berk, B. (2017, February 17)  Study: A majority of millennials shop online for groceries.  chainstoreage.com.  Retrieved February 23, 2017, from

http://www.chainstoreage.com/article/study-majority-millennials-shop-online-groceries

Can internet research provide the insights that marketers seek?

12/3/09

Thanks to new technologies, a new form of internet research has emerged. It involves aggregating all available web chatter to gather information. That’s right. Your search activities, YouTube posts and tweets are being carefully monitored by companies looking to glean insights about consumer trends.

Based on this type of info Harrah’s determined that what traveler’s tend to chat about is the iconic view of the Las Vegas Strip from its Paris Las Vegas hotel. As a result of this data, they changed the photo on their home page. They also noticed that customers cared about room size, so they started including data about square footage in their marketing messages. The result? Online bookings increased by a double-digit percentage. That’s impressive given the current state of the economy. (Steel, 2009)

But, how do you feel about big brother looking over your shoulder? And what about the large percentage of the population that doesn’t engage online? How will their needs be addressed in an all digital future?


Steel, E. (2009, November 23). Marketers Find Web Chat Can Be Inspiring. Wall Street Journal, pB8.

Are we really surprised that online is taking a hit?

3/9/09
In late 2008 people were predicting that online would continue to see advertising gains due to its low out-of-pocket and perceived efficiencies. But, recent data shows that online spending does indeed appear to be down in first quarter 2009. ("Online Ad Spending Seen Shrinking", 2009)

It has been my experience that during bad times, marketers retrench, take a conservative approach and fund only those media that have proven their worth.

Some new studies that have just come out indicate that television is more effective then ever in stimulating sales (Neff, 2009) -- the only true measure of success. Online on the other hand has succeeded admirably when it comes to attracting attention, a la the "elf me" promotion, but has not been equally successful in increasing sales growth.

What do you think? Is it a good time to run advertising online, or time to pull back?

(2009). Online Ad Spending Seen Shrinking. Wall Street Journal. Retrived February 25, 2009 from: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123558776209174437.html?mg=com-wsj

Neff, J. (2009). Guess which medium is as effective as ever: TV. Advertising Age. Retrived February 23, 2009 from: http://adage.com/print?article_id=134790