Advancements in Understanding Shopper Data

Recent advancements in behavioral data collection have enabled researchers to passively (and not so passively) collect information about what people do while online — the sites they visit, the content they view and the items they purchase — adding further to the already large volume of data we now have at our disposal to help understand online shopping behavior.

While Amazon Prime, other retailer apps, and advancements in home delivery services have enabled consumers to do more of their shopping online, a vast majority of people still visit physical (brick & mortar) stores to purchase everyday items such as groceries, clothing and other household staples.

Of course, there is a vast amount of data available to help understand shopping behavior at stores (register transactions have been captured and analyzed for decades now), however it is difficult for most researchers to obtain access to that data or to find meaning in the data once they have access.  Companies who offer this data can charge a very high price for it or data owners may limit access to specific stakeholders.  Even if you are able to get your hands on the data, it is a challenge to understand “why” people purchased the items they did, or determine whether or not they also purchased a competitive product (or purchased it instead of your product).

ProdegeMR recently launched our Receipt Capture technology enabling our online community of over 60 million members to willingly upload their store receipts using our research app.  Our members take a photo of their receipt and upload the photo using the app.  Our technology ensures the receipt image is captured correctly and then automatically ‘codes’ the receipt details in our database.  We know:

• The brands and products purchased
• When the product was purchased
• At what store the product was purchased (and specific store location)
• The amount paid for each product (and total cart value)
• The shopper’s age, gender, household income, ethnicity and additional demographic and psychographic information

This data can be powerful on its own and used to analyze shopper trends over time, or serve as targeting criteria for conducting quantitative or qualitative research to add context to the purchase data and better explain shopper journeys.  Research might be conducted among recent purchasers of specific categories, brands or products, or you might want to survey those who shop at particular retailers (Target, Walmart, Kroger, etc.) or types of retailers (Big Box or Grocery Store shoppers).

In addition, it’s possible to gather “in-the-moment” insights by conducting store exit surveys using geo-fencing technology, directing surveys to people as they leave a store and, if they made a purchase, asking them at the end of the survey to upload their receipt.  These exit surveys can also help businesses understand why a shopper visited and left without making a purchase.

A researcher’s ability to collect shopper data in both the online and offline worlds, and then add depth by pairing that data with traditional quantitative or qualitative research, can help paint the complete picture of a consumer and help explain their entire shopping journey.

Learn more about what ProdegeMR is doing to help clients leverage insights from shopper data at www.prodegemr.com.