If you are a retailer or an e-commerce merchant, you could feel threatened by the digital revolution currently revamping the retail industry, or you could be excited by the potential for growth that lies ahead. Whether you jump at the chance of change – and reap the rewards – really depends on you. The shift of retail towards an omni-channel experience is changing how we view the branding of products and services. Digitized shopping is empowering consumers and changing their behavior, resulting in significant parts of the purchase process moving out of the store and into homes. In our research study for Centiro, we set out to investigate how and why the purchase process can be used to improve a company’s competitive edge. The research comprised an ethnographic study of consumers in their own homes and an online survey of 1000 consumers. This qualitative and quantitative approach has provided an insight into how online shopping is changing what it means to be a consumer. It leads us to the key question for our retail future: how is branding strategy affected when consumers adopt new digital purchase processes? We argue that the purchase process becomes a full-circle once the purchasing experience begins and ends in the consumer’s home. Based on consumers’ own opinions and their behavior, we have considered which parts of the purchase process need to be leveraged to become more competitive. Our eight insights are designed to help you to capture the potential of these new full-circle consumers.
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