••• mobile research
Stores as showrooms
Mobile-equipped consumers view merchandise in stores, buy online 
Seventy-two percent of consumers ages 20-to-40 in the U.S. and the U.K. use mobile devices while in-store to compare prices but the majority leave before making a purchase, according to a study by New York consulting firm Accenture Interactive. The research also showed that while consumers in this age group are concerned about online privacy, they will permit retailers to track their shopping behavior to personalize their shopping experience.
More than half of the 2,000 consumers surveyed in each country believe that in-store prices are higher than online prices. While 60 percent say that online prices entice them to visit a store where they can compare prices and view merchandise up close, 48 percent still go home to buy the products from that retailer online and another 32 percent buy products online from a different retailer. Only 20 percent make their final purchase in-store.
“The showrooming trend can pose a threat to retailers, given that nearly a third of our respondents make their final online purchases with other stores,” says Baiju Shah, managing director, strategy and innovation, at Accenture Interactive. “But consumers don’t want to shop online exclusively and our work with retailers shows that physical stores don’t have to compete on price alone but rather focus on the whole experience. Retailers need to create a seamless, multichannel experience that blends the digital and physical and delivers convenience, price and relevance.”
Consumers are extremely interested in having a more personalized shopping experience, despite their concern for privacy protection. Sixty-four percent say they would be receptive to receiving text messages when visiting a store informing them of offers that match their past shopping interests and 60 percent strongly agree that it is acceptable to receive advertisements on their smartphone if they opt into them.
Despite the fact that 86 percent of those surveyed say they are concerned about Web sites tracking their online shopping behavior, 85 percent are aware that such tracking goes on but they understand that tracking enables companies to present offers and content that matches their interests. Nearly half of the respondents are receptive to their favorite stores or brands using their tracking data to inform their future purchases and make them aware of product availability.
When asked to make a choice, 64 percent of respondents say it is more important that companies present them with relevant offers against only 36 percent who say companies should stop tracking their Web site activity. At the same time, however, 88 percent strongly agree or agree that companies should give them the flexibility to control how their personal information is used to tailor their shopping experience.
Ninety-two percent of respondents are more inclined to purchase from a company that makes use of social media channels. For 67 percent of the respondents, Facebook is the preferred social media channel. The survey also showed that 80 percent of consumers are more likely to buy from a company that uses online and e-mail communications and 70 percent are more inclined to buy from companies using mobile applications.
Additionally, respondents selected Internet advertising as the channel most likely to steer them toward buying (47 percent), followed by radio advertising (45 percent), print (31 percent), mobile (19 percent) and television (15 percent).
www.accenture.com
••• non-profit research
The givingest cities
Salt Lake City and Midwest hubs lead in volunteer efforts
Over one-quarter of American adults have participated in volunteer work, volunteering programs or volunteering organizations in the past 12 months, according to a study conducted by Scarborough Research, New York. The study also looked at the top local markets, demographics and media consumption of the 27 percent of volunteering Americans.
While volunteers from all across the U.S. have contributed their time to relief efforts for varying crises, certain local markets are more saturated with volunteers than others. The top local markets for these do-gooders include Salt Lake City (42 percent); Minneapolis (34 percent); Des Moines, Iowa (34 percent); Portland, Ore. (34 percent); and Grand Rapids, Mich. (33 percent).
Although not every market has such robust volunteer numbers, even the bottom markets have large portions of their adult population doing their part: El Paso, Texas (21 percent); Bakersfield, Calif. (21 percent); Providence, R.I. (20 percent); Harlingen, Texas (20 percent); and Miami (20 percent).
So who are America’s volunteers? The generational breakdown of volunteers is as follows: Millennials (20 percent of adults who participated in volunteer work in the past 12 months), Generation X (27 percent), Baby Boomers (34 percent) and the Silent Generation (18 percent). Volunteers display a sense of initiative in their professional lives. Adults who are self-employed or small business owners are 12 percent more likely than all U.S. adults to be volunteers. While 43 percent of volunteers are employed full-time, they are 16 percent more likely to hold white-collar employment and 34 percent more likely to have a college degree or higher.
Volunteers are not only generous with their time, they are financially charitable as well. Volunteers are 84 percent more likely than all U.S. adults to have contributed to an arts/cultural organization in the past 12 months; 61 percent more likely to donate to an environmental organization; and 60 percent more likely to contribute to a political or social care/welfare organization in the same time period. Fifty-seven percent of volunteers contributed to a religious organization in the past year.
How can you reach out to volunteers? Fifty-six percent of volunteers read the local news section of their newspaper and 38 percent read the international/national sections. Volunteers are 17 percent more likely than all U.S. adults to tune in to HGTV, 16 percent more likely to watch PBS and 13 percent more likely to watch TLC.
www.scarborough.com
••• financial research
The female retirement crisis
The twilight years prove worrisome for women
Most Americans, particularly women, are woefully underprepared for retirement, as four in 10 women have less than $10,000 saved and only 21 percent have more than $100,000 in all of their investment accounts, according to data from Chicago research company Mintel.
The situation is even more dire for pre-retirees. Some 58 percent of single women ages 45+ who have any kind of savings or retirement account have less than $50,000 saved, while only 22 percent have more than $100,000 saved. At the same time, these women are aware of their need to step up their savings efforts, as only 5 percent of 45-to-54-year-old women and 16 percent of 55-to-64-year-old women believe they are saving enough for their twilight years.
“Women nearing retirement age believe saving for retirement is very important and women aged 25-to-44 are the most likely to rate saving for retirement as their top financial goal over the next year,” says Susan Menke, vice president and behavioral economist at Mintel. “While it may be too late for older women, research suggests that younger women are starting to save early and may not end up in the same predicament.”
Thirty-six percent of women who aren’t retired yet say they plan to keep working at least part-time during retirement because they expect they will need the income. That number jumps to 50 percent for women who are 55-to-64 years old. Lack of retirement planning is evident in that only 13 percent of women who aren’t retired say they have determined the age at which they will be able to do so.
www.mintel.com
••• apparel research
Tough customer
Millennials most unsatisfied with online apparel shopping
Satisfaction with online apparel retailers is significantly lower among online shoppers ages 18-to-24 than among those ages 55+, according to a study from Westlake Village, Calif., research company J.D. Power and Associates. Satisfaction among online shoppers ages 18-to-24 is 795 (on a 1,000-point scale), which is significantly lower than those ages 55+ who scored 825 and the report average of 812.
The report examines satisfaction with online apparel retailers among consumers who have completed an apparel purchase online in the past 12 months. Overall satisfaction is measured across seven factors (in order of importance): online store services and delivery; Web site/online store; usefulness of information; in-stock availability of merchandise; competitiveness of pricing; variety of merchandise offered; and contact with customer service. The relative importance of customer service is low, as only 18 percent of online consumers indicate that they contacted customer service. However, among those who contacted customer service, this becomes the most important factor.
According to findings from the report, younger consumers (18-to-24-year-olds) who shop online for apparel rely predominantly on price (63 percent) when selecting an apparel retailer. Notably, a significantly higher proportion of these young consumers use positive reviews of the brand (27 percent) and recommendations from family, friends or colleagues (19 percent) when selecting an online apparel retailer than the report average of 19 percent and 15 percent, respectively. Conversely, older consumers (ages 55+) who shop online for apparel use past experience with a brand (77 percent) as their primary reason for selecting a retailer, while only 16 percent use positive reviews of the brand and 11 percent use recommendations from family, friends or colleagues.
On an annual basis, consumers visit their primary online apparel retailer’s Web site an average of 30 times and make an average of five purchases. Younger consumers visit their primary apparel retailer’s Web site and purchase from that retailer online significantly more often, averaging 42 visits annually and seven purchases. Conversely, older consumers visit their primary online apparel retailer’s Web site an average of 18 times and make an average of four purchases annually.
www.jdpower.com
••• children
An inverse relationship
Healthy eating grows in popularity as U.S. youth grow unhealthier
Today, nearly one-third of children are overweight, with 15 percent considered obese. This growing epidemic has prompted food companies to get involved by subjecting themselves to self-imposed marketing regulations and launching family-directed advertising and promotional initiatives. Kansas City, Mo., research company KidSay and Lombard, Ill., branding agency The Marketing Store Worldwide conducted qualitative and quantitative research among U.S. kids ages five-to-11 to understand kid eating behaviors and attitudes.
Generally, kids see themselves as healthy eaters. This is true across gender and age. Roughly two-thirds of tweens (ages eight-to-11) say they are excellent or pretty good when it comes to healthy eating. Very few kids say they are not very good. Moms agree, with more than 75 percent rating their kids’ eating habits positively.
Eating healthy has become cool. Within the past decade, there’s been a dramatic shift in kids’ attitudes toward healthy eating. The vast majority (80 percent) now think it’s cool, up significantly from 59 percent in 2004. Correspondingly, very few (5 percent) now view it as uncool, as opposed to 19 percent in 2004.
Unfortunately, most of kids’ favorite foods are less healthy, with the exception of fruit. In fact, across a variety of questions about their favorite foods, the ratio of healthy to unhealthy foods tended to be 2:3 or lower.
Kids are confused about how healthy their food and beverages are. During focus groups, kids were asked to sort 43 products into three groups: healthy, not healthy and unsure. Kids had a clear understanding of some food categories as healthy or unhealthy (milk, water, fruits, vegetables) but many (including grains, proteins and kid foods) are less clear and nutritional education is not motivating for kids. Education alone will not be enough to stem the tide of childhood obesity.
Insights gleaned from the research point to three strategies that marketers can use to encourage healthier choices: nudge, camouflage and play.
The nudge strategy involves structuring kids’ environments to make healthier foods/beverages more salient. The underlying premise is that kids tend to be attracted to and select items that are visually prominent or the ones that are most convenient. Grocery stores that position pre-sweetened cereals at a child’s eye level and food manufacturers that package their products in vivid colors or with a cool promotion are using nudge. Fast-food restaurants that provide fruit as a default in their kids’ meals are also using nudge.
The camouflage strategy usually involves hiding a healthy food (that kids don’t like) within another food (that kids do like). Mixing spinach into a fruit smoothie or pureed carrots into spaghetti sauce are examples of camouflage. One retail product that has successfully leveraged this strategy has been V8’s V-Fusion, which mixes vegetable juice in with fruit juice. Another variation involves coupling a disliked healthy food with another food or sauce that kids do like. One example is Earthbound Farm Organic Dippin’ Doubles Carrots and Ranch Dip.
The play strategy involves bringing play into food. Kids are driven to play and look for opportunities to do so. Fruit Roll-Ups let kids play by unrolling it, twisting it or punching out shapes. String cheese lets kids pull it apart into pieces. Play can also be provided through the packaging, such as Go-Gurt.
www.globalkidsstudy.com
••• customer satisfaction
No. 1 with a bullet
Amazon earns highest satisfaction scores among online shoppers
According to a study from Rochester, N.Y., research company Harris Interactive of online shopper satisfaction and other factors for specific retailers from Best Buy to Walmart and more, Amazon outperformed the competition on all measures in 2012. Additionally, a majority of online U.S. adults are satisfied with the overall online shopping experience and all retailers tested received a rating of a five or higher on a seven-point scale. Also, all tested brands show positive recommendation likelihood scores.
The study examined 14 retailers across a number of topics, including the selection of products, ease of shopping, perceived value and likelihood to recommend, along with overall satisfaction ratings. For mass-merchandise Web sites, Amazon ranked highest overall, followed by Costco Wholesale, Target and Walmart. For department store Web sites, JCPenney and Kohl’s tied for first, followed by Macy’s and Nordstrom tied for second. In clothing and apparel, L.L. Bean and Victoria’s Secret were ranked first, followed by Zappos, Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch and Urban Outfitters.
Costco Wholesale received high marks when it came to mass merchandisers seen as offering a good value. Zappos and L.L. Bean shared the top spot for selection of products in the clothing and apparel category and online shoppers rated Kohl’s Web site highest for ease of shopping within the department category.
When asked which factor – value, selection or ease of shopping – is most important in determining return visits to an online retailer, the most-selected factor is good value for the money (33 percent) by a considerable margin over both ease of shopping (16 percent) and selection of products (10 percent), though the top response overall is not at all sure (41 percent).
Beyond Amazon, Costco was the second-highest ranked mass merchandiser for value, with Walmart and Target close behind. Kohl’s was the top-ranked department store for perceived value and L.L. Bean and Zappos were the top-ranked clothing and apparel Web sites for the same.
On almost every measure for every retailer tested, positive ratings among women outpaced those of men. However, positive ratings of Victoria’s Secret among men are roughly even with those of women for selection of products (75 percent men vs. 72 percent women) and likelihood to recommend to a friend or relative (73 percent men vs. 71 percent women).
Nordstrom, long known for its commitment to customer service and satisfaction, may have some ground to make up with online shoppers in 2013, as it didn’t rank in the top 10 in terms of overall online customer satisfaction. Specialty retailer L.L. Bean ranked seven spots higher than Nordstrom on the customer satisfaction list. Other major retailers Kohl’s and JCPenney also outperformed Nordstrom on this measure.
www.harrisinteractive.com