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Day: May 1, 2020

A closer look: What do consumers want from brands?

Posted on by shopkick

A closer look: What do consumers want from brands?

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Knowing what consumers want is the difference between being effective and invasive. The brands that are most attuned to their shoppers are better able to allocate their resources, conserve customer acquisition cost, and churn greater year-over-year revenue. Understanding the desires of consumers has worked for companies like Starbucks, Apple, and Amazon that have sustained loyalty over the years. 

Gleaning insight into the modern consumer’s mind is beneficial in dictating your strategy. It can be easier said than done, which is why so many brands are miles behind where they’d like to be. However, if you’re committed to understanding, investing, and adapting as you go, your brand will begin to stand out as a pioneer and an innovator. 

What Do Consumers Want From Brands?

An Omnichannel Shopping Experience

Very few shoppers are solely “online” or “offline” consumers. The vast majority of consumers shop back and forth between websites, social media, mobile apps, and physical stores. These omnichannel shoppers spend an average of four percent more every shopping trip to a physical store, and 10% more online compared to single-channel shoppers—and, they shop 23% more often. 

Your brand’s customers are looking for seamless consistency in look, feel, and messaging—no matter which channel they choose to interact with your brand. Creating an omnichannel experience fosters a sense of community.

Shoppers want multiple ways to contact brands for customer support, whether it’s through direct message or comment response via social media, IM chat on a website, email, phone, or in-store returns counter. They want rewards programs and special offers to be available on physical cards, mobile apps, and web portal logins—freeing them to shop whichever channel they desire. 

Customers not only expect a frictionless omnichannel focus upfront, but they expect it in your back-end processes, as well. Advances in technology have made it easier for brands and retailers to keep items in stock, fulfill orders efficiently, and checkout orders quickly. Bridging the gap between online and offline channels alleviates bottlenecks that would otherwise jeopardize the overall user experience.

Hyper-Personalization

Hyper-personalization leverages artificial intelligence and real-time data to deliver more relevant content, product, and service information to each customer.  

Taking this extra step in personalization is important, considering 72% of consumers say they will only engage with brands that tailor marketing messages to individual shopper needs and preferences.

Modern shoppers expect exclusive deals on the products they like or would like, quick resolution of issues, timely back-in-stock alerts, personalized recommendations, as well as the ability to find what they need faster and easier. While many of these shoppers are comfortable with sharing data, they also expect full transparency. They want to know what data is being collected about them, how it will be used, and who it will be shared with—as well as a way to opt-out of data tracking. 

Brands can incorporate hyper-personalization into social, mobile, and in-store marketing—which also creates an omnichannel experience—to cater to consumers’ desires. 

Social

Four out of five consumers believe society is more divided than ever—and 78% are looking to leading brands to bridge the divide, using social media as a platform. Brand behaviors that connect with audiences include:

  • liking or responding to a fan
  • showcasing brand personality
  • supporting a cause
  • inviting user-generated content
  • promoting offline events

Consumers want brands to focus on people, not just products. They look to brands to connect disparate groups of people across platforms. Why does social connection matter? Three-quarters of those surveyed said they would buy from a brand they feel connected to over a competitor. When they don’t feel a connection, 70% are less likely to shop there and 61% spend less when they do.

Mobile

Existing mobile architecture makes it easy for brands to connect with busy, on-the-go, smartphone-enabled shoppers. Brands can partner with a third-party mobile shopping rewards app, like Shopkick to reach an already-loyal base of consumers. Shopkick allows consumers to begin their purchase journey by browsing engaging in-app content from several brands and retailers, whether they’re at home or on the go. For partners, this content helps build pre-shop awareness and consideration and puts products at the top of shoppers’ minds. Users can check the Shopkick app to see which brands or retailers offer “kicks,” or rewards points, which incentivize shoppers to visit a store or browse online. Eventually, Shopkick users redeem their kicks for free gift cards, which builds a positive affinity and loyalty for the brands that awarded them. 

In-store

The personalized retail customer experience has overtaken product and price in terms of competitive advantage, with 86% of shoppers willing to pay more for better UX. Brands can leverage Shopkick in-store to offer consumers an engaging and interactive, rewarding experience. In-store, Shopkick utilizes an engaging gamification strategy that drives shoppers to products at-shelf and encourages physical product interaction in exchange for kicks. This allows brands to boost product awareness when it truly matters most—in-aisle, with the product in hand. By offering users an additional kick incentive for making a purchase, Shopkick closes the loop and drives sales. When consumers receive rewards via Shopkick, they attribute them to the partnering brands—also building positive affinity and loyalty.

Value for their Loyalty

Rewarding loyalty may have been a differentiating factor at one time. Now it’s par for the course, with 79% of consumers stating they will only shop with brands who show they care about shopper loyalty.

It’s a common mistake to focus on luring customers through price discounts and special offers—unless you are committed to being known for offering the lowest prices. This angle has worked for brands like Aldi, Dollar General, and Burlington. However, most businesses would rather have greater pricing freedom but still retain their fan base.

Shoppers like to walk away from a transaction feeling like they received a great deal of satisfying value. A loyalty rewards program is a simple, yet effective way to achieve this end goal, without slashing prices. With a loyalty rewards program, customers are motivated to continue shopping to earn rewards points that they can exchange for future rewards or discounts; they continue shopping, brands don’t have to reduce prices. These programs should be transparent and points should be easy to accrue and redeem. 

The best programs also offer flexibility in rewards, so consumers get what they want in exchange for their loyalty. For instance, many programs have different tiers so customers can gain small or big rewards, depending on how much they’re willing to invest. Flexibility will enable customers to stay engaged at every point in the journey. 

Value doesn’t have to be lavish; it can be found in thoughtfulness. A simple gesture like a handwritten note, complimentary sample, birthday bonus offer, or free appreciation gift can go a long way.

Ultimately, consumers want to feel seen, valued, and appreciated. They want to feel an emotional connection with the brands they choose to bestow with their business. After all, it’s a competitive market out there and if you won’t cater to the individual, the consumer knows there are plenty of other brands that will. Tools and technologies make it possible to see each shopper as a unique individual and tailor the experience on a micro level. By taking care to create a personalized, omnichannel, rewards-packed experience, you show consumers you understand what they value and what matters most in their lives.

Shopkick is a popular rewards app that allows brands to connect with consumers through engagement and incentives. Our partners also use Shopkick to drive sales, steal market share, and produce incredible ROI. Contact us to find out how we can help you deliver what consumers want.

American Shopping Behavior Evolving Weekly Amidst COVID-19 Crisis

Posted on by shopkick

Essential items remain out-of-stock on store shelves, consumers tightening belts on nonessential items. 

As COVID-19 continues to impact Americans’ daily lives, new updates and stricter regulations paired with growing concerns about the virus have led to drastic changes in consumer shopping behavior in just a matter of weeks, according to a new Shopkick survey. After comparing the new data with two previous surveys – the first in mid-March, the other in early April – we found key differences in consumer behavior related to in-store shopping, spending on non-essential items, health precautions and more.

In this latest study, we surveyed more than 20,000 consumers across the country between April 16-20, 2020 to gain insights into how consumer behavior has changed as the COVID-19 situation evolves.

Key findings include:

Growing concerns are changing shopping behavior. In the March survey, 76 percent of consumers said concerns about the virus were affecting their shopping habits. Now, with national stay-at-home orders in effect and people having a much clearer understanding of how the virus spreads, that number has jumped to 82 percent, with 45 percent of consumers also saying they were more concerned.

Consumers are frequenting new retailers more often. Consumers remain open to trying new brands and products, with more taking advantage of varied inventory at different types of retailers. The number of consumers visiting a wider range of store types increased in the latest survey, with a higher percentage saying they were shopping in grocery stores (77 percent in April, 72 percent in March), big box retailers (72 percent in April, 69 percent in March), drug stores (45 percent in April, 42 percent in March), dollar stores (35 percent in April, 32 percent in March), club stores (29 percent in April, 27 percent in March) and convenience stores (20 percent in April, 19 percent in March).

Americans are only braving stores once a week. In the March survey, 50 percent of consumers said they averaged one trip to the store per week. Now, with social distancing orders in effect across the country, that number has increased to 60 percent, with a near 10 percent drop in more frequent shopping trips across the board.

Health precautions now include wearing gloves and masks. Ninety-one percent of consumers now take additional health precautions while shopping in-store, compared to 85 percent previously. These precautions include disinfecting hands and shopping carts (89 percent), using debit/credit cards to avoid exchanging cash (68 percent), shopping at less busy times (67 percent) and using self-checkout (53 percent). Due to new government regulations, many shoppers are also wearing protective masks (78 percent) and gloves (42 percent) while in stores.

Younger shoppers are still stocking up. America’s youngest consumers are continuing to fill their shopping carts with essential items. Most Gen Zers (67 percent) and Millennials (58 percent) said they were still stocking up this month, compared to less than half of Gen Xers (49 percent) and Boomers (42 percent).

Consumers are spending less on non-essential purchases. In March, slightly more than half of consumers said they were spending less on non-essential purchases (52 percent). Now, that number has increased to 67 percent.

Toilet paper is still out of stock. Americans are still struggling to find essential items on store shelves, with 64 percent reporting these items as sold out or low-in-stock. Consumers said the most out-of-stock essentials included toilet paper (91 percent), cleaning supplies (81 percent), paper towels (71 percent) and medical items like masks and gloves (59 percent). Meanwhile, other essentials like soups and canned goods (37 percent), baby wipes (35 percent), pasta (33 percent), painkillers and medicine (23 percent) and pet supplies (eight percent) appeared to be making their way back to shelves.

Similar data was uncovered by Trax, the parent company of Shopkick. The leading global provider of computer vision solutions and analytics for retail looked at two weeks of shelf inventory data (March 30 – April 10) from more than 300 stores across a variety of U.S. retailers. Trax processed over 50,000 images of shelves carrying 10 essential product categories to understand the reality of shelf availability in store.

This broad picture of actual product availability depicts similar findings to what consumers reported seeing totally out-of-stock and low-in-stock items included toilet paper (92 percent), cleaning supplies (53 percent) and baby wipes (46 percent). Meanwhile, painkillers, pasta, soups and pet supplies were mostly in-stock.

“As the realities of COVID-19 sink in and we get a better grasp on how to combat the virus, consumers will continue to change their shopping behaviors to match,” said Dave Fisch, general manager of Shopkick. “We have already seen ebbs and flows in actual purchasing behavior as Americans figure out how to navigate the situation for themselves and their families. We hope that by providing the most up-to-date data, we can help paint the full picture of what retailers and consumers are experiencing during these rapidly changing times.”

Get in touch for more information on our continued efforts to help our partners navigate shifting consumer behaviors during these unprecedented times.

 

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3 Easy No Knead Bread Recipes

Posted on by shopkick

Have you made bread while quarantined at home? We have been adding new recipes to try to our ever evolving lists, and we have to admit how much fun we have been having in our own kitchens, not to mention watching other people embrace making new recipes in their own spaces. We have tried a few bread recipes over the past few weeks, and we think we’ve narrowed down the three easiest options. Below, we’re sharing all of the details so you can check “bake bread” off of your list (and likely add it right back on once you taste the results). 

1. No Knead Focaccia:

In our book, you can never go wrong with a recipe from Bon Appetit. We spotted this No Knead Focaccia recipe on Instagram and set aside a Sunday to bake this bread. It quickly became a family favorite! The bread will rise once inside your fridge and a second time on your counter, so we recommend starting to prep the dough early in the morning. Serve it with pasta for a fun Italian dinner night meal or cut slices in half for delicious sandwiches!

2. Brown Sugar Banana Bread:

If you have never baked bread before, banana bread is a great place to start! You will not need to purchase yeast to make this recipe come to life, and it’s a great way to make sure to use bananas even if they have become a bit too ripe to eat. The ingredient that makes this recipe different is in the name: brown sugar. Serve for breakfast or enjoy a slice (or two!) as a snack in the afternoon. Your family will love this recipe! 

Brown Sugar Banana Bread | www.shopkick.com

3. No Knead Bread:

This No Knead Bread is another tested and loved recipe by the Shopkick team! Oftentimes, bread needs to be kneaded, which makes the process of prepping it feel a little more daunting. This bread makes a classic loaf once baked, and there is no kneading involved. You’ll want to start prepping the dough the day before you want to eat it, so keep that in mind. Also, the author of the recipe walks through the steps of using a Dutch Oven and not, so the post is definitely worth reading.

Happy bread baking, Shopkickers! Share your results on Facebook.