Shopping Uncovered: How important is High Street presence?

Online shopping wins hands-down in the convenience stakes, but there is still a role for having a physical store, as revealed in Shopping Uncovered

Shopping Uncovered is our latest retail insights report that aims to give marketers a better understanding of how and where we shop today.

We asked more than a thousand home and leisure shoppers their views, which confirmed some of what we know as well as bringing up a few surprises.

How and where we shop?

We asked when shopping a particular category whether shoppers preferred online, instore or a combination. Overall the omni-channel way of shopping is growing. Almost a third of home and leisure shoppers actively integrate instore and online.

When we look at how store and online are integrated, the process is mainly researching online and then going instore. And while online takes the lion’s share (68%) of the process in home and leisure, 60% of shoppers use the physical store in some capacity – be it to research before buying online, to see and buy a product researched online, to carry out the whole shopping experience or simply pick up an item ordered online.

We also looked at the key trends by generation – Millennials (18-29 Year olds), Gen X (30-49 year olds) and Boomers (50-70 year olds).

Despite the younger age groups being more digital natives, there is little difference in online and instore behavior by age.

However, subtle differences do exist.

While Generation X have embraced the online shopping experience the most in home and leisure, Boomers are more likely to do the whole shopping experience instore.

What does this mean for marketers?

Marketers working in home and leisure must seek out the balance of online and instore behaviour, and embrace the omnichannel – understanding the integration of on and offline, and in what order they appear in the shopper journey to create a more intuitive strategy.

Get a copy of the report

Keep an eye on our blog as over the coming months we will be launching category reports that delve a little deeper.

This is an excerpt from Shopping Uncovered, which can be read in full here