Shopper Insights
Shopping is both a cognitive and non-cognitive process—a blend of deliberate decision-making and subconscious influences. At Decision Analyst, we leverage a wide range of qualitative and quantitative techniques to uncover both sides of this equation. We explore the subconscious drivers that shape how consumers navigate stores, respond to packaging, and interact with displays, as well as the intentional behaviors that guide brand choice, comparison, and purchase.
The core idea is to uncover why, how, when, where and the process by which consumers make their purchasing decisions. This understanding applies across all retail channels, including physical stores, online platforms (websites and apps), and omnichannel experiences that blend these approaches.
Why Shopper Insights?
- Improve Marketing Strategy. Understanding shopper motivations, perceptions, and behaviors leads to better marketing strategies.
- Upgrade Packaging and Merchandising. How can the packaging and point-of-purchase displays be improved?
- Gain a Competitive Edge. Understanding shoppers and their needs gives manufacturers and their brands an edge over competitors.
- Optimize Display and Store Location. Intelligence on where shoppers “expect to find” your product in the store or via online search provides guidance for merchandising and category management.
- Elevate Customer Experience. Understanding shopper needs and behaviors allows you to improve the customer experience.
What is Shopper Insights?
Shopper Insights refers to learning from qualitative research, ethnography, and survey-based research to gain an in-depth understanding of consumer motivations, behaviors, patterns, and purchases throughout the shopping journey for a specific product category and brands, or a category and brand of services.
The research searches for influences, sources of information, and the credibility attributed to different sources of information. The goal is to understand every little detail of the purchase journey, to develop a deeper understanding of the consumer’s behavior and the variables that drive that behavior.
Impact on Shoppers
As each shopper is impacted by many forms and types of media, including websites and apps, there are also numerous avenues for intelligence gathering about shoppers. Each platform or input can be influenced by others. Therefore many Shopper Insights consulting engagements are multi-phased and utilize intelligence from multiple sources. They may include Shop-Alongs in store and online, followed by survey-based research, and are often combined with other sources of information about shoppers such as:
Behavioral
Sales
Social
media
Customer Service
Demographic
Traffic
Flow
Multi-phased research and multiple sources of intelligence help build confidence in the final results and recommendations, as multiple phases and data sources can inform the next phases of questioning and analytics. Combined they provide cross-checking and confirmation of the results, conclusions, and recommendations.
More than Just Retail and CPG
Shopper Insights are applied not only to shopping at grocery, drug, and other types of retailers, but also to shopping at banks, insurance companies, car dealers, hospitals, and dentists.
Shopper Insights can be applied to the purchase of almost any product or service, whether it be B2C (business-to-consumer) or B2B (business to business).
Shopper Research Services
Decision Analyst offers services at every stage of the consumer's decision-making process:
Shopper Insights Team
Gretchen Riskind
Qualitative Consultant
Heather Hardiman
Qualitative Consultant
Why Decision Analyst?
Decision Analyst is a leading global marketing research and analytical consulting firm with over 45 years of experience in Shopper Insights and Customer Experience Optimization. Our staff has helped hundreds of companies improve the shopping experience and the customer experience.
Shopper Insights is one variable in a complex set of variables that impact a brand. These variables include branding, positioning, merchandising, product, packaging, pricing, advertising and promotion.
If you have questions you would like to discuss, or if you would like a proposal, please fill out the Contact Us form, or your can contact: Bonnie Janzen, President, bjanzen@decisionanalyst.com, or Felicia Rogers, Executive Vice President, frogers@decisionanalyst.com, or call 817-640-6166.
How can we help you
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