The Rise of the Super Shopper in Omnichannel Retail

Our pandemic year has accelerated many things that were already trending and none more so than the move to e-commerce and omnichannel shopping.

Retailers, and even many brands, have responded to the COVID crisis in agile and ingenious ways, introducing offerings from Click and Collect Curbside, BOPIS (buy online, pick up in-store), micro fulfillment, “dark” stores, contactless pay, just-walk-out shopping, subscription services, and even DTC Retail (direct to consumer). The pace at which retail is adapting and innovating is blistering.

While many traditional shoppers have only just been exposed to e-commerce for the first time because of COVID, on the other end of the spectrum, we have seen the rise of the Omnichannel Super Shopper. To understand their motivations and influences it behooves brands to apply a very sharp behavioral lens in order to create the most effective activations.

 

What Makes Super Shoppers Different

These “Super Shoppers” as we have dubbed them see themselves as in control and they have high expectations. They expect to get what they want, how they want it, when they want it, and at the best possible price. And they are often using deal-seeking tools like Rakuten, Honey, or Ibotta. Super Shoppers are not just looking for discounts, they are taking total charge of their shopper journey and insist on having the right tools to improve their own shopping experience.

 

Building Frictionless Benefits Aimed at Online Super Shoppers

 What we know about all shopping behaviors in the context of our behavioral framework is that consumers will make choices based predominantly on two things:

Do they perceive a benefit, and if so, a motivation to purchase, OR do they perceive friction in an experience, in which case, there is a barrier to making a purchase?

 

 

This is especially true of the Omnichannel Super Shopper.

Take shoppers adopting Amazon Prime as an example.  While some may initially sign up for the free shipping alone, even unconsciously the additional benefits start to accrue (ease of the experience, the convenience of next day delivery at no cost, other services like access to Amazon streaming service for movies and TV shows, as well as discounts at Amazon’s physical grocery retailer, Whole Foods). With each purchase, these benefits act as behavioral prompts with members using the service far more than they anticipated at sign up, becoming habituated to that choice. Super Shoppers instantly comprehend that they will rapidly amortize the upfront investment in many ways beyond simply recouping their annual subscription fee in saving on shipping.

But Amazon has also done a brilliant job in reducing barriers to shopping by eliminating one of the main friction points in retail: the dreaded return. They made it, dare I say, easy. Not only can shoppers drop off a return at their local UPS, Kohl’s store, or even Whole Foods locker, in most cases they don’t even need a box!

Super Shoppers reflect the motivation to be in control when we look at their actual online shopping behavior. These shoppers tend to ignore touchpoints that are too overt (think: banner ads or sponsored content) as they do not like to feel like they’re being advertised to. In contrast, more subtle touchpoints like recommendations after a product has been added to their cart, or recommendations from an expert online store “associate” can be very influential. They like a friendly “Chat Bot” but only if the “virtual assistant” can truly resolve a question quickly and accurately.

In the online shopping trips that we’ve observed in our omnichannel path-to-purchase practice, about 50% of these Super Shoppers actually had deal-seeking plugins installed directly on their browsers. Tools like Rakuten, for example, has 27 million website visits on average each month in the US, and in November, that reached almost 50 million. Super Shoppers leverage all the benefits of plugins and resources to get what they perceive to be the best deals.

What’s also interesting is that we found that these Super Shoppers feel entitled especially when it comes to appreciation for brand loyalty. If they are choosing to spend a lot of money on a purchase, they expect coupons or bundling discounts or some other perk, especially in the DTC retail experiences, the ceremony of unboxing, or getting a note from the brand thanking them for their purchase. They also like personalization and respond to messaging that draws on intelligence about their buying patterns. “Time to replenish?  If you liked this, you might be interested in that!  Your favorite brand is now back in stock!”  These proactive messages are not seen as intrusive but rather a reflection of being recognized and having preferences already understood.

The purpose of the shopping trip can also affect the mindset and therefore the behavior of the Super Shopper. They actively use features like “Start Your Cart” that draw on data from your last purchase to build your online shopping list for replenishment shopping.  They see it as a beneficial time saver enabling routine shops to be on autopilot.  But in a shopper journey involving exploration, this is where Super Shoppers really excel.

Looking across all our omnichannel studies, we observed that for one exploration-driven category that was often shopped at Amazon, Super Shoppers used significantly more touchpoints including editorial reviews, ratings, product images, and videos. And they tended to use filters more often. This was in stark contrast to a more routine grocery shop that took place in Walmart. For the exploratory path-to-purchase, it’s really a kind of treasure hunt in and of itself. That’s the excitement, especially for the Super Shopper.

Where the infrequent or new online shopper might be overwhelmed by all the options to optimize shopping experiences and see that as a barrier, the Super Shopper sees the virtually unlimited ways to engage as a benefit and a motivation to do more with retailers and brands who offer them.

Knowing how to recognize the behaviors of the Super Shoppers allows brands to optimize the interventions that can influence their choice.