Shopper marketing

Shifting focus from product and consumption emphasis to focusing on the individual
purchaser along several stages within the distribution channel is the very emphasis of
Shopper marketing (Shankar & Yadav, 2011). Nowadays, the relatively new phenomenon of
shopper marketing experiences a rapid growth and even being used on a daily basis by
retailers / manufacturers.
Shopper marketing has a history of being prompted by external factors and in turn,
maintaining them. The birth of technological feats such as the internet has enabled vast
opportunities, such as foreign competition, which is a primary reason to many innovative
strategies which define Shopper marketing. For instance, competition on a massive level
has created new digital purchasing routs in order to save costs for the retailer and
consumer. Similarly, economic booms and busts reinforce the usage of these digital tactics
and force companies to find better ways of improving already present systems as well as
designing new and innovative ones. This often includes allowing consumers to purchase
and order home any number of products from a mobile device, whereas other innovative
clutter breaking technologies could involve reaching customers through relatively untapped
mediums, like GPS, for instance. (need reference here) . To clarify, the parameters of these
new digital purchasing roots can range from receiving updates via mobile phone of your
favorite product line while driving to work, all the way to using a tablet to customize a
delivery order while waiting in a queue (). Specific examples are not just limited to the
consumer; sales employees can gather, retain and organize vast amounts of purchasing
information and then assign it to each customer by using any one of the numerous forms of
software dedicated to this purpose (). To that end, stores use software systems of this
nature in order to assign certain products or product categories to a specific shopper, for
instance advertising feminine clothing products to females via e-mail, or sms. By doing this,
a store may reduce the amount of risk involved when sending an advertisement to a
potentially wrong customer (Precourt, G., 2012).
Innovations
The shopper marketing contains innovations which depend on several factors that are
interacting between each other creating changes at the category that contains them but also
in the shopper behavior.
The economy is a factor that is having short or long term influence over innovations and
shopper behavior. Recently the economic environment created for the shopper the situation
in which he has to cut back hedonic spending and he is looking to find the best deal by
comparing all the available information. Also companies started to rethink how the
marketing budget has to be more effective and retailers were refining their products portfolio
(Shankar et. al., 2011).
One other factor that influences the activity of shopper marketing is related with the
regulation, or in fact deregulation and heightened competition in some countries, that is
making retailers to adopt new and creative ways to reach the customer. Having competition
at a global level forces the approach to in-store and out-of-store activities to be highly

innovative in order to make the customer deeply connected with the shopping experience in
the store (Shankar et. al., 2011).
Globalization allows retailers to reach a high point in terms of affordable investments and
this enables bigger spending on innovations, especially in shopper marketing area to try
reinforcing their position on the market. At the same time the small competitors are trying to
compete with the big ones and they are forced to find innovative shopper marketing
strategies in order to attract customers and to create for them a better alternative
(Shankar et. al., 2011).
One of the shopper marketing innovations, that is rapidly growing and has great impact on
the category itself, is technology. Beside hardware devices like smartphones, tablets, GPS
or specialized hand-held gadgets, the fast expansion of the internet has had the most
significantly influence over the shopper, allowing him to access information easily and gain
control of it. At the same time these technologies offered marketers the chance to develop
new strategies to approach the shopper creating connections that ultimately can translate in
a retailing profitability and better shopping experience ( Shankar et. al., 2011).
Technology
The evolving technology has an increasing importance for the consumers and also for the
retailers by impacting the purchase cycle beyond the presence in the store itself. For the
consumers, technology brought new ways to get useful information and better planning, on
the other hand, the retailers are happy to have a new way that helps them to build a brand
identity and to engage with consumers easily. ()
Handheld devices, like smartphones and tablets, are the new instruments which can give to
marketers the capacity to create a more engaging connection with the consumer but most
importantly is that this connection goes beyond the check-out counter. For example a good
way to increase customers loyalty and engagement, in order for them to make often
shopping trips with bigger purchases, is to send on their devices personalized coupons. In
this way the retailer promotes products in an easier manner to the consumers outside the
store and at the same time the smartphone user can save money easily (Precourt, G.,
2012).
A benefit to the customers advantage due to technological innovations is the immediate
accessibility to hedge future prices. A consumer could receive information regarding future
discounts on a product line, or impending supply shortages during a certain season. For
instance, a consumer could receive notifications one month in advance regarding the sale
of turkeys during Christmas holidays. The same could apply to winter jackets, or inflatable
outdoor pools. (1st article) While the aforementioned examples are examples of future
discounts, there are often instances where seasonal factors may affect consumer behavior
in a different manner, which companies try to combat. For instance, consumers prefer not to
drive all the way to a large mall during winter to buy cold medication, sheerly out of the
inconvenience involved, rather, they would prefer to stock up at a nearby convenient store
for a significantly higher price. Companies combat this by letting them know that flu
season is on way (article).

As companies can encourage consumers to hedge future prices, companies themselves

can minimize the risk of financial loss by advertising the appropriate products to
corresponding consumer assortments. Advertising female fashion products, to women
(Patel, K., 2012). Similarly, while on the note of customization, companies further reduce
potentially unsatisfied consumers by allowing them to personalize goods as per their
respective tastes; that is, before customers even leave home, they can design a customized
product which can then be picked up at the store ( Barnett, K., 2011)
With more and more customers using smartphones to compare prices or to research
products retailers started to use this technology also for their own employees equipping
them with tablets for a better service. In that way retailers are trying to be closer to the
shopper with more helpful information and also with specialized application that is able to
connect the customer with a person from the store, which can make recommendations
based on previous products purchased.()
Related to phone applications, retailers are releasing their own specialized applications that
include list-making, budgeting or completing transactions while trying to compete with other
online based stores and also having control over the customers while they are in the store
(Patel, K., 2012).
The GPS capacity of over 80 percent of smartphones can help retailers to reach consumers
at the same time as they are approaching products in store; gathering this information can
provide useful data about shoppers behavior. Also, retailers can send coupons on GPS
enabled phones within a specific area of a certain store, in an attempt to boost demand, if
one product is being sold at an unsatisfactory level. In this way, it is easier to affect the
supply and demand for retailers at the store level, that being, the link between the shopper
and marketer. This creates a beneficial result for both of the parts. (The path to profit)
With the help of technology there are also new in-store gadgets or display devices that can
support retailers with regards to focusing more deeply on shopper marketing as a useful
tool to keep the customers attracted to the company.
One device, which is designed to make the customer treat the shopping experience as an
easier way to purchase products they need, is a wireless hand-held gadget that is issued at
the entrance of the store and can scan and record prices of any product. This device makes
lists, total sums, as well as making suggestions on display of discounted products which are
nearby or based on customer choices until that point. The experience can also extend
outside the store by sending shopping lists from the customer on the internet.()
There are also devices like talking floors or backlit displays which are based on sensors that
trigger when customers are nearby. The purpose of these kinds of devices is to capture the
attention and to create the feeling of a more interactive kind of environment thus, making it
easier to spread information about products or promotions. ( Fitzgerald, K., 2004)
The growth and perpetuated influence of technology may ironically, work against the
retailer, and perhaps more to the benefit of the consumer. If a consumer is not in a physical
store, or somewhere where a company can set a form of ambiance, then the consumer is
not as influenced as he would be if he was in the store. Many visual elements are lost to the
consumer when using a phone or another external means of purchasing, which it turn

decreases the retailers sphere of influence towards the consumer (Patel, K., 2012). Further
to the point of retailers reduced sense of control is the fact that these external means of
purchasing are also informational systems which, in many cases, enable the customer to
know more than an average sales employee (Patel, K., 2012)