The new informed, empowered consumer Today’s consumer lives in a constant state of change, adaptation and complexity. Technology is at the root of this, enabling once-segregated activities like TV viewing and email to bleed into each other, and to occur whenever and wherever the consumer wants them to. This basic change includes they way consumers are shopping today. In tough economic times, consum- ers are being challenged to rethink the very way they approach shopping: where, when, what they buy and why, are constantly being evaluated and re-evalu- ated, making it increasingly difficult for retailers to pin them down. Even attempting to categorize shoppers among classic buckets like “high-end” or “bargain hunter” is challenging, because shoppers are simply using more sophisticated tools and strat- egies to get what they want, without regard to these classifications. Beyond considerations of price, quality and style, consumers are becoming accustomed to attaining large amounts of information about the products they buy. This information can range from where and how things are made, to how individual products reflect their ever-evolving sense of personal identity, or how the social sphere will perceive their purchase. A look at a poll conducted last year by BusinessWeek gives a sense of how today’s consumer is simply shopping differently: • 69% research products online before going to the store to make a purchase. • 62% have looked at an online review at least once before making a purchase. • 61% want to be able to scan bar codes and access information on other stores’ prices. • 39% compared a product’s features and price across online retail outlets before buying. • 9% used a cell phone to text message a friend about a product while shopping. Digital is creating a new generation of shoppers who expect stores to provide them with answers to their continually-evolving questions, to know them better over time and adapt to the way they shop. Consumers expect no distinction between online and brick- and-mortar shopping — they simply want the same features, products, access and service no matter where or when they decide to shop. Unfortunately, many American retailers have been slow to adapt to this new cultural dynamic. In fact, some have resisted it altogether. The result has been dramatic and serious; retailers, particularly depart- ment stores, are becoming increasingly irrelevant to modern shoppers.
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