Buying behavior is changing rapidly
STUDY A 2014 cross-channel management study by the Research Center for Retail Management at the University of St. Gallen shows how quickly consumer purchasing behavior is changing.
Today, consumers shop differently than they used to.Hardly any phenomenon in purchasing behavior challenges companies as much as the use of different online and offline channels. We use our smartphones to obtain information, visit a retail store, and finalize our purchases in an online store. The so-called "Consumer Decision Journey" is the focus of the international D-A-CH study, in which 2,780 consumers describe their cross-channel buying behavior. The findings from this trend study call for a new understanding of marketing, an adjustment in organizational structure and more knowledge among management about this rapid process of change.Five key findings show how quickly purchasing behavior is changing: 1. Today, 30 out of 100 customers already visit at least one online and one brick-and-mortar touchpoint in the buying process.2. Our customer touchpoint analysis shows that the retailer's online store is gaining strongly in importance. In 2014, this is on a par with the retail store. In the apparel sector, the retailer's online store is even the most frequent starting point for a purchase process; in the electronics, entertainment media, food and cosmetics sectors, it is the second most frequent.3. The best-known cross-channel retailers in Switzerland are Migros (including ex libris and digitec) and Coop (including Interdiscount). The biggest increase in awareness in our top 20 cross-channel retailers in the D-A-CH region was recorded by Media Markt. In Switzerland, in addition to Media Markt, Interdiscount and Esprit in particular gained in awareness.4. Consumers in Switzerland are most familiar with cross-channel retailers from the food industry (26%). In the neighboring countries of Germany and Austria, consumers mainly name cross-channel retailers from the apparel sector (40% and 32%).5. In order to respond successfully to changing customer behavior, retailers are using a variety of cross-channel services. Customers in our study are particularly aware of the services online and offline customer cards, click & collect, and online availability checks.
