Z世代和千禧一代购物者现在更喜欢直接从品牌方订购产品,72%购物者表示一旦疫情结束他们预计将去实体店尽情享受“线下购物”的乐趣,而在新冠疫情爆发之前,这一比例仅为60%。这是根据凯捷研究院(Capgemini Research Institute, CRI)的最新报告《今日消费者关注》(What Matters to Today’s Consumer)的发现,该报告揭示了疫情对购物者行为和偏好带来的深远影响。
INTRODUCTION
Consumer behavior can change rapidly. Taking the obvious example of the COVID-19 pandemic, the way in which people buy and use goods and services has been disrupted on a global scale. Lockdowns, social-distancing measures, and serious safety concerns, while restricting our everyday lives and movement, have given rise to massive growth in ecommerce and striking changes in consumption patterns. As the world slowly emerges from the shadow of the pandemic, many of these trends will remain embedded for the long term, shaped and reinforced by the new expectations of consumers.
This report is the first installment in what will be an annual research series designed to report on and measure the dynamic trends and evolving consumer behaviors, year on year. While the specific topics we investigate each year will inevitably be dictated by changing market conditions and consumer trends, we will have core measures that we will apply annually, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer preferences for in-store versus online shopping.
In this first report of our new annual series, we explore the topic of product versus services. Specifically, we want to investigate how central and significant the product and its characteristics are to the customer's buying decision and how much importance consumers place on the services they are offered and the customer experience they receive when deciding which products to purchase and which retailers to patronize. Additionally, we explore consumer trends related to delivery and fulfillment and direct-to-consumer models, including buying directly from brands.
To address these questions and topics, we surveyed over 10,000 consumers over the age of 18 in 10 countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the US. To qualify for inclusion in the survey, consumers must have made a purchase of groceries, household and toiletries products, and/or health and beauty products in the preceding six months.
Our questions explored shopper preferences and views surrounding the attributes they look for both in the products and in the retailers themselves. We were also keen to capture their views on broader trends, such as willingness to pay
for delivery services and to order directly from brands as opposed to retailers. For more details on the survey sample, please refer to the Appendix.
In this report, we identify four key trends based on our current and previous consumer-research studies that consumer-product firms, retailers, and grocers must monitor constantly in order to drive operational resilience and strengthen customer engagement:
1. Consumers are returning to in-store shopping but ecommerce remains strong
2. For certain retail categories (e.g., grocery and health and beauty), efficient delivery, and fulfillment services are more important than in-store experience.
3. Shoppers are happy to order direct from brands.
4. Consumers’ top priorities are healthy, sustainable living –and making purchases that reflect this.
We conclude by specifying four key actions for brands and retailers that want to capitalize on these evolving consumer trends.