Does Shopping Preparation influence Consumer Buying Decisions?

Abstract

Changes in consumers" environment, specifically the economic crisis and the growing penetration of digital technologies, have produced significant changes in shopping habits, designed to gradually reduced the effectiveness of in-store marketing levers in influencing shopping behaviour. On one hand, due to the global economic downturn and the associated diminished disposable income, more shoppers are now searching more information before entering a store and evaluating more alternatives before to decide where and what to shop. On the other hand, the deep penetration of technological developments, such as digital media and mobile devices, among the population, has opened up new opportunities to influence shopper attitudes and behaviour in the retail environment. A new scenario seems to be opening up where more planning and preparation for shopping is carried out before customers entering the store. In this new environment, to formulate and execute effective shopper marketing strategies, managers need to better understand the complete picture of how online, offline, mobile and in-store marketing influence shoppers in the path-to-purchase-and-beyond cycle. Starting from recent research avenues, our work intends to explore the relationship between pre-shopping behaviour and shopping behaviour in-store, with the aim to understand how pre-trip activities have influenced shopping behaviour in-store. In order to get this purpose, we conducted a survey in three stores belonging to a leading Italian grocery retailer. Shoppers were intercepted in front of the display, when the chosen product was placed in the shopping cart. Through a structured questionnaire, respondents were asked about the nature of the purchase (planned vs unplanned) and the degree of out-of-store preparation (number and type of activity carried out). Data were processed using SPSS statistical software. The degree of grocery shopping preparation is found to influence shopper behaviour inside the store in terms of planned/impulse buying: the higher is the degree of preparation, the greater is the tendency to plan purchases and the lower is the tendency to make impulse purchases. Our findings could suggest retailers and manufacturers new ways to innovate the practice of shopper marketing, considering that marketing levers cannot still affect consumers" decisions in-store as in the past.

The Impact of Mobile Device Use on Shopper Behaviour in Store: An Empirical Research on Grocery Retailing

“…In a retail environment, mobile devices and new applications for smartphones allow shoppers to scan product barcodes, compare prices across retailers or obtain digital coupons to be redeemed in store. The usage of technologies in pre-shopping phase could help shoppers to make better decision and being less influenced by the environment while expending less effort inside the store (Bellini et al, 2016). Therefore, digital tools may have positive effects on both the quality and the efficiency of purchase decisions inside the store.…”

“…The analysis of the factors influencing the consumer's decision making process inside the store has always interested researchers (Kollat & Willet, 1967;Iyer & Ahlawat, 1987;Iyer, 1989;Donovan, Rossiter, Marcoolyn & Nesdale, 1994;Inman, Winer & Ferraro, 2009;Mohan, Sivakumaran & Sharma, 2013;Shankar, 2014;Bellini et al, 2016). Nevertheless, the impact and the role of mobile technologies, such as smartphones and other mobile devices, is a subject still little explored.…”

“…Our findings are interesting for both retailers and manufacturers who are looking for new ways to better address their marketing efforts and increase consumers' engagement instore.The widespread mobile connectivity and the gradual development of new technology have not only changed the way we interact and communicate, but have significantly impacted on consumer decision-making process. Consumers in a retail setting use this tool with different purposes: finding information on the web, comparing pricing and purchasing goods and services (Bellini, Cardinali & Grandi, 2016). Therefore it becomes crucial to understand how the mobile influences the decision-making process as well as the buying behavior of shoppers.…”

Design and Development of Smart List: A Mobile App for Creating and Managing Grocery Lists

“…Identifying the list of grocery items including food to purchase before going to the grocery store can be a strategy to maintain good health (15). The consumers adopted the planning stage as a self-control strategy to avoid impulsive purchases at the grocery store (16).…”

“…A grocery list serves as a tool to keep track of the items to be purchased in physical stores, consequently has been a subject for scientific studies (18). Studies have shown that the existence of a written grocery list increases the probability of purchasing the planned grocery items (16).…”