9 Out of 10 Shoppers Make Impulse Purchases

With all the hype around social media and digital marketing what we are learning now is that POP displays and things like packaging can still lead to conversion. Despite a shopping list being a tool to stay on budget and eliminate unnecessary purchases, research shows that nine out of ten shoppers still buy items not on their list.

Of these shoppers who purchase off-list items,

• 66 percent say the reason was a sale or promotion,
• 30 percent say they found a coupon, and
• 23 percent say they simply wanted to pamper themselves.

Data shows that 61 percent of off-list shoppers purchase an additional 1–3 items. [pullquote]”This shows that if you reach a particular shopper at the right moment with the right message, for example — using in-store signage to play into their desire to pamper themselves — it can end with that item being added to their basket.”[/pullquote]

When it comes to list-making,

• 61 percent of shoppers are influenced primarily by the brand of product they currently use
• 57 percent report that coupons influence their list, and
• 56 percent say store ads or circulars influence their list. However, when shoppers are making lists, they typically do not write down brand names of a product, they write the product type.

This means that although they may have their brand of choice in mind, there are factors that can influence a shopper to select one brand of a product over the other, telling marketers they need not worry that a shopping list excludes certain brands or creates a barrier to purchase.

So does this mean that social media and digital marketing is not important ? Of course not it just means that marketers may be allocating marketing dollars to the wrong channel. A great looking and functioning website maybe nice but if a POP display drives more sales than why aren’t you looking for innovative ways to catch their attention at the store ?

Originally published at www.newmediaandmarketing.com on January 13, 2017.