Grocery shopping is a hot issue right now in retail, so ask yourself, how often do you evince customer loyalty when shopping for groceries? According to a new research project undertaken by Shoppercentric, previous speculation about customer loyalty is now being flipped.

Retailers are turning their sights

Shoppercentric’s “WindowOn…Fragmented Shopper Repertoires,” demonstrates that on average, UK shoppers switch between five different retailers and three different channels to make purchases on monthly perishables like groceries. Loyalty, says the report, can no longer be assumed.

Danielle Pinnington, Managing Director at Shoppercentric, said that: “The big four grocery retailers are turning their sights from large format one-stop-shops to smaller c-store formats, yet panel research suggests that the convenience channel has actually lost share in the past five years. We decided to talk to shoppers directly and find out how they believe their habits are changing.”

Shoppers have changed shopping habits 

The statistics are based on 1,100 shoppers, and some of the key findings in capricious shopping behaviours whipped up some surprising statistics. 70% of UK shoppers claimed to have changed household shopping habits recently, switching between different stores and also the frequency of visitations.

20% admitted to shopping for the household while 38% stated they were looking at a wider variety of stores.

So what’s the meaning of all this? Well, Shoppercentric puts it down to a few important variables that are worth considering:

Key change drivers are related to passion, that 51% of shoppers were proud to shop for the houshold. 23% said it was more pleasurable to wander around to different places, 17% claiming that shopping in the same store was a bit of a bore. Of course pricing also came into the equation, 29% of which were dedicated to store vouchers and discounts more than store names, and of course proximity, the convenience of saving your feet for the boring grocery shopping, with which 54% concurred. Frankly, it’s simply looking like grocery shopping isn’t the most thrilling part of anybody’s shopping experience.

What’s more, 17% of self-proclaimed ‘Tesco shoppers’ said they spend more in other stores, while consistently the report finds the same is true of wandering ‘Sainsbury’s and Morrison’s shoppers’.

Bulking up the shopping experience

Pinnington concluded: “Ultimately, retailers can no longer afford to assume that theirs is the store shoppers will visit most often or spend most of their household grocery budget in. Shoppers have had their eyes opened by the much wider range of stores open to them and varying economic pressures which have impacted budgets and choices. Blind loyalty is a thing of the past for many – going forward, loyalty must be earned.”

Quite simply, MD Danielle Pinnington believes that services ought to improve, and how! This is not just about raking in the customers, it’s about bulking up the shopping experience for even the more mundane products. Muster up those marketing ideas and tell us, what can you think of to spice up the grocery aisles?

Shoppercentric are a leading independent shopper retail group working with a wide range of established clients, from Asda, Somerfield, Kraft foods, Kellogg’s, Homebase and many more retailers in other industries such as electronics, DIY and other high street retailers available on their website. They provide advice on qualitative and quantitative methods for traditional and technological, pre-store and in-store, training and essential trending research.