How America Shops 2010 MegaTrends Study

The economic recession has made it glaringly clear that segmenting shoppers based on household income, age or even ethnicity is far less important than identifying their unique "shopper personalities."In fact, targeting consumers based on such traditional marketing segmentations may be largely obsolete, according to WSL Strategic Retail, which reports that "it is startling how little demographics matter" in the data behind its How America Shops 2010 MegaTrends Study. WSL has been conducting the biennial survey, which this year queried 1,940 consumers aged 18 to 70, for 23 years."The rich are not as different from everyone else (at least emotionally); and, overall, the young have become as conservative in their attitudes toward shopping and their willingness to spend as older shoppers," according to the study's executive summary. Regardless of particular demographics, for instance, 70% of women say "it is important to get the lowest price on most things I buy" -- up six percentage points from 2007 and 17 points compared with 2003 -- and only 19% profess a willingness to pay more for convenience (down 15 points since 2003). In addition, 50% say they now choose lower-priced brands (up 14% since 2003), with only 31% agreeing that it is worth paying more for "trusted brands." (One of the few notable exceptions to this demographic blurring is the fact that, at 54%, African-Americans are far more willing than other women to pay more for trusted brands.)The study notes, however, that the recession was not the catalyst for these attitudinal changes, but rather "the final curtain call" in a transformation that has been taking place for almost a decade. "Americans changed how and where they shopped, first through necessity, now through choice," the executive summary states. "In order to succeed now, [marketers] must understand new shopper attitudes, values and the new terms for success for brands and stores and shoppers."The data seems to convincingly support the marketing industry's move toward shopper marketing -- and its focus on consumer behavior inside and outside the store -- as a central communication strategy. It is somewhat ironic that, while the recession may have curtailed spending on shopper marketing initiatives (and marketing overall) in 2008-09, it may also have hastened the need to develop expertise in the practice. Shifting Traffic PatternsThe emergence of this "smart and thrifty" female shopper has led to a decline in stock-up missions and an increase in both the average number of weekly shopping trips (to 3.9, up from 3.6 in 2007) and number of stores visited (3.7, up from 3.5). "Stocking up less means more trips to replenish, and going to more stores to find the best sales and the lowest prices," according to the report. One "sign of the times" is the fact that dollar stores have passed department stores to become the fourth most frequently shopped channel behind mass merchants, supermarkets and drugstores, although the change came more from a decline in traffic to department stores than an increase in dollar store shoppers. Although the report found that trips to dollar stores actually declined from 2007 to 2009, the channel's growing importance has been illustrated by a significant increase in the amount of account-specific activity leading consumer packaged goods marketers are conducting with top chains Dollar General and Family Dollar. Mass merchants and supermarkets remained the most frequent destinations, although both channels experienced a decline in shoppers compared with 2007. The disparity in visits between the channels narrowed, however, as trips to mass merchants dropped more precipitously. (See chart.) The report identifies two causes for this trend: more women shopping to prepare meals at home rather than dining out, and more opting to avoid the possibility of overspending on the non-food purchases available at mass merchants. In addition to their continued battle with supermarkets -- not to mention warehouse clubs and, to a lesser extent, drugstores -- mass merchants are feeling the encroachment of dollar stores: Nearly 70% of Walmart's core shoppers now also shop the channel, the report finds. Also growing in importance are deep-discount (or extreme-value) chains such as Aldi and Supervalu's Save-A-Lot, which attracted 15% of low-income shoppers in 2009 despite a relatively limited store base; WSL didn't even track the channel in 2007. A traditional supermarket operator, Supervalu recently announced that expanding the Save-A-Lot format is now its first priority.The news for mass merchants is more positive away from the food aisles, where the channel continues to gain trips at the expense of specialty retailers in such categories as consumer electronics and pet supplies "thanks to a combination of lower prices and ... an improved brand offering," the report states. The latter aspect was most noticeable at Walmart, which undertook a major overhaul of its electronics planogram last year.The New ChannelAnother sign of the changing times is the growth in online shopping, which passed several bricks-and-mortar classifications to become the sixth most frequented "channel" in 2009, with nearly half of all shoppers taking part. On a weekly basis, 24% of women are now shopping online, according to the study. "Once all about convenience and selection, the Internet has become the go-to channel to find the lowest prices and coupons," it states.These online shoppers are far more likely to be using e-retailers such as Amazon.com (shopped by 57% of the survey's respondents) than traditional chains, which attracted 7% or fewer of their own shoppers online in 2009. That fact makes the rise of online shopping "a threat that Walmart executives are right to lose sleep over," the report notes.

How America Shops 2010 MegaTrends Study

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