consumer trends: how important is convenience really?
What you’ll learn:
- We all insist that consumers love and want convenience. Sure, it’s important, but perhaps not as influential as we thought - an interesting report for specialty brands and retailers.
- Apparel is having a really good (and slightly unexpected) year. Keep an eye on women’s activewear.
- Whoa! Dick’s Sporting Goods stock climbs 13% in...a day!
Verde Consumer Behavior Report - August 18, 2021
It’s an interesting time in consumer behavior. As if the world’s news headlines didn’t already train us to do this, I’d say the theme for this edition of Verde’s Consumer Behavior Report is: “Expect the Unexpected.”
gauging convenience as part of the overall customer experience
Even pre-COVID, there was a focus on convenience as a competitive edge. Consumer expectations are set by the ginormous marketplaces and retailers out there that are able to heavily invest in bringing everything to the consumer in a digitally personalized way. I mean, Amazon delivers convenience. How can we compete?
Then the pandemic hit and convenience also became (at least partially) synonymous with a safe shopping experience. This put convenience front and center for us again as business leaders - minus the headwinds of course with sourcing and supply.
Well, the people at Kearney Consumer Institute are coaching us to, “Slow that roll.”
Convenience is a moving target because everyone defines it differently. Most often, we try to corral it into a “time is money” equation. But as Kearney points out, convenience doesn’t directly translate into time spent because how we perceive the value of time varies by the situation.
They call this “consumer’s time elasticity.” Browsing new gear for 20 minutes is a fun and worthwhile experience for many consumers. Waiting 20 minutes in line to pay for a purchase is not.
In the report, “Easy Like Sunday Morning: Deconstructing Consumer Convenience,” Kearney says to focus on convenience as part of the entire brand experience.
Kearney concedes that inconvenience can be a deterrent: “97% of consumers have backed out of a purchase when it wasn’t convenient for them.” On the flip side, convenience comes in a distant third when considering what matters most to consumers when shopping. In order of priority, shoppers value:
32% the highest quality item
30% the lowest price
13% the most convenient option (note the drop from 30% to 13%)
12% a brand’s values
11% the overall brand
2% other
The entire report is a quick and insightful read into how consumers ultimately determine the levels of inconvenience they’re willing to tolerate.
With that in mind, convenience should inform brand decisions, not necessarily rule them. Knowing exactly who you serve - who your shopper really is, and how they’re evolving with the continuous changes we’re all living through, will enable you to prioritize convenience as much as you can.
Time is highly personal - what is the value of time for your ideal shopper?
apparel is coming back strong
A series of articles published on the Worldwide Textile Information Network indicates that people are ready for style again - but in the form of comfort & athletic clothing.
Wolverine Worldwide bought Sweaty Betty.
Levi Strauss & Co. has signed a purchase agreement for Beyond Yoga.
Nordstrom now has a minority interest in Asos’ HIIT
Another earnings note sheds light on the power of retail experience, no matter what the channel. Nordstroms is one retailer that’s really thrown down when it comes to multi-channel experiences and innovative approaches to keeping shoppers entertained (think: sneaker drops) while browsing and buying. Whether that’s a changing format of a brick-and-mortar Nordstrom store, influencer deployment, or more value tied to legacy campaigns like the Anniversary sale - the company keeps pushing for innovation and never sits idle.
That, my friends, is the base recipe for all we must do to be remarkable to our consumers going forward. It is also why Nordstrom clocked triple-digit growth in Q2. Pete Nordstrom, president and chief brand officer of Nordstrom, was quoted as saying this about his company’s strong Q2 results:
“A compelling merchandise assortment, combined with new and differentiated services and experiences, contributed to strengthening customer engagement and improving financial results during our anniversary sale.”
Dick’s is on a roll
According to a piece written by Tiffany Montgomery of Shop Eat Surf, Dick’s Sporting Goods is posting numbers that are nothing short of astonishing. Clearly, the business is reaching a brand-new level.
Q2 net sales grew 45% vs. the same quarter in 2019 and Dick’s continues to post increases even when up against tough comparisons.
“We’re now more than 12 months into the significant top-line strength following the reopening of our stores last year,” said Dick’s CFO Lee Belitsky.
“A portion of this strength was driven by stimulus payments, but more importantly, we’ve seen a fundamental shift in consumer behavior. The importance of health and fitness has accelerated, participation in outdoor activities has increased and there has been a far greater propensity for athletic apparel and athletic lifestyle products.”
The company added 8.5 million new customers last year, and 2 million new customers in the most recent quarter. Executives said those new customers are sticking around. All main categories – hard goods, apparel, and footwear – are performing well.
Our take
The collective mindset seems to be moving away from “waiting out the pandemic,” and toward “figuring out a way to live” with the constant uncertainty. Consumers are figuring out what ‘normal’ is every day, and that calls for versatility. They’re also getting very very adept at finding solutions to meet their ever-changing needs.
Most important, we think that existing and NEW participants (fitness, outdoor, health, and wellness) are now self-identifying with their new active lifestyle more than ever before. We all have more clarity around what matters to us - and that’s growing stronger with every shift in the news cycle and we are empowered to take action based on those values.
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