Can I get an Order of Wi-Fi With those Fries?

Wi-Fi is increasingly becoming a popular commodity in which most consumers require in their shopping experience. Starbucks has always offered wi-fi to its customers, but according to this article in RetailWire more companies will start to offer the same service.

McDonald's rolled out it's Wi-Fi service to 11,000 of its 13,000 locations this January. Many food service companies are beginning to feel the heat as it looks like this trend is here to stay. Rutter's Farm Stores is another food location which has offered free wi-fi as well. And in response to this, the company has received many thank you letters from customers that have expressed gratitude for this offering.

I wonder if other fast food giants like Burger King or Wendy's will quickly follow suit...

Customers and the impact of food labels

Australian Food News reports that an study has recently concluded on the influence food labels have on shoppers in Europe. The study, which questioned 17,300 people from various European countries, both in supermarkets and at home, found that only 18% of Europeans regularly look for nutrition information on food packaging in-store.

A new finding was that people spend an average of 30 seconds selecting a product. By comparison to previous studies, this is substantially more time than previously observed. The UK was lowest at 25 seconds per product, with the highest average time clocked at 47 seconds.

How does this compare with shopper behavior in America?

Learn more: European study highlights impact of food labels

Green Fashion Goes Mainstream

This recent post on retailwire discusses how many years ago consumers did not believe that eco-friendly fashions were all that stylish, but to the contrary in today's age the opposite is actually true. More and more shoppers are wearing green and clothes made with organic fibers.

Zem Joaquin, founder of ecofabulous.com, mentions "Four years ago, there was very little in the mainstream. Now there are clothing stores devoted solely to environmentally conscious designs like Eco Citizen ... and eco-couture being sold at Barneys New York. Pact showed a beautiful example of organic underwear on the runway. It used to be hard to find, and when you did, it was saggy and unattractive."

Fashion designers are now re-thinking what materials to use in their clothes now that consumers have the environment in mind.

Target Bulk Promotion Competes with Warehouse Clubs

According to this article in retailwire, Target will be giving consumers all the benefits of bulk deals found at stores like Costco and BJ's without the need for any membership fees that these warehouse clubs usually charge.

"The Great Save" event will run from January 3rd through February 21st and it will give consumers a treasure hunt experience on designer brands, and a way to stock up post holiday season. There will be "Great Save" location inside roughly 1,000 participating Target stores across the U.S. It will be interesting to see what other huge stores will follow suit.

Global Consumer Trends: Individualism

Good trend-watching is about taking the bigger-picture approach. Adopting a broader global perspective to trend-tracking facilitates better decision making by overcoming 'category myopia'. Monitoring the broader FMCG environment will enable bigger picture learning that can be applied more specifically.

Today’s increasingly individualistic consumers place considerable value on self-expression and asserting their individual identity. This also includes exerting their power and control as consumers. The Individualism mega-trend represents consumers’ desires to be themselves and be recognized as having personal needs rather than being part of the mass market. Consumers seek products that make them stand out from the crowd and provide them with (or at least reinforce) a sense of personal and social identity. This mega-trend represents values such as “being me”, “trusting myself”, “finding my own answers” and “making my mark on the world” in a world of opportunity and liberating freedom where people can live their lives as they please. The desire for individuality is not new. It has just become more attainable for more people due to rising prosperity in society and the fact that technological advances facilitate easier, more cost effective personalized products and services. With rising prosperity there has also been a growth of post-materialist societies where values emphasizing self expressing and individuality have grown.

Individualism is one of 10 mega-trends Datamonitor has identified as having a substantive impact on the marketing landscape. An intuitive understanding of these mega-trends is fundamental because they set the pre-conditions for marketplace success. Use this report to understand global consumers’ individualistic and self expressive attitudes, behaviors and lifestyles and how this translates into marketing opportunities.

Kroger Thrives by Listening to Their Customers

This post in retail wire discusses how the grocer Kroeger has managed to receive higher same-store gains than its rivals by keeping a close tab on the shopper behavior of its customers.

David Dillon, chief executive of Kroger, gives an example of their style when he mentions:

"We send our very best customers coupon books specifically targeted at what they actually buy. The redemption rate of these coupons is significantly higher than other coupons."

Dillon ends by saying that it is important to know what your competitors are doing, but it is far more important to pay attention to what your customers want in your stores.

US supermarkets successfully changing product mix and enhancing loyalty

Australian Food News reports,

“The industry showed its resilience in the most challenging economy in modern history,” FMI President and CEO, Leslie Sarasin, said. “Retailers aggressively discounted products and increased their lines of private brands to help American families lower their grocery bills. At the same time, they continued to control costs by improving efficiency and productivity, a hallmark of this industry.”

What else is the American grocery store doing to enhance the customer experience whilst gaining a profit in these tough economic times. With the increase in private labels, we may see more customer loyalty to specific retailers as customers learn to like specific private labels.

Impulse Shopping is Alive and Well

This post on RetailWire highlights even though consumers are making shopping lists and trying to stick closely to it more than ever now, research shows that about 90% of those shoppers who create lists stray away from it and making impulse purchases once they get to the store.

The research, conducted by Miller Zell, also shows that the Generation Y is most likely to make impulse purchases based on advertising messages and end-caps. Curt Johnson, SVP for Miller Zell, mentions, "People talk so much about this generation researching everything online before they buy it, but this study showed that they actually index much higher than other age groups in terms of finding all advertising -- both in-store and outside the store -- as 'very effective'. Gen Y is, in fact, a lot more malleable inside the store than many marketers think."

What are your thoughts?

Internet Increases Consumers’ Confidence to Part with Cash

According to Webpronews.com, online shoppers are loosening the grips on their wallets, but continuing to be cautious about where and how they spend their cash. To secure their business, online retailers need to persuade consumers that they’re offering the best product at the best price. Written by the staff of Webpronews, they covered the recent surge in online searches for store coupons. The Internet is fast becoming the favored place to search for coupons with a rise of 46% in the number of people who never use newspaper coupons. In addition, Hitwise recently reported a significant rise in the use of search terms relating to money-saving techniques. Read the rest of the article, here.

Shoppers Trade Down to Private Brands

According to a report covered by CNNMoney.com, shoppers trading down to private brands is among the most prevalent changes in shopping behavior. Specific stores that have seen this change include Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Kohls. Each of these stores have extended their private label offerings to entice shoppers and keep them shopping in the stores. The CNNMoney report also says that retailers also will likely downsize their packaging, store size and even their growth expectations, as part of a long-term trend to emerge from the economic downturn that's changed consumer behavior. The report covered in the CNN article was from a joint report of consulting firms PricewaterhouseCoopers and Retail Forward.

Understanding the Pet Owner Mindset

Nestle Purina's Installment on RetailWire.com:

Catering to the whims and habits of a pet owner is less about understanding their demographics than their mindset, because it's the relationships with their pet that mainly drives their purchase behavior. One indication of the intensity of the relationship between pets and their owners can be seen in the results of an October 2008 survey by Consumer Reports that studied consumer intentions for the holiday gift giving season. The majority of respondents (59 percent) said they would be cutting back on gift giving in 2008. However, among those, only 23 percent indicated they'd be reducing gift spending on their pets.

When creating an atmosphere for pet owners, remember that many owners see pets as members of their families--for some they even replace children. The bonds between a pet owner and their pet are solid and grocery stores and other retailers should realize this to maximize the customer experience.

Read more about creating a pet owner shopping experience here.