More Digital Connections Means More Engaged In-store: Study

An investment in digital connections with shoppers will increase shopper engagement and spending in-store, according to new research from retail technology consultancy Brick Meets Click.

BMC’s 2013 grocery report, Six Degrees of Digital Connection: Growing Grocery Sales revealed that there is a strong relationship between the number of digital connections and whether a customer was likely to be a primary shoppe -- one who does more of their grocery spending with that retailer than with any other. Sixty-one percent of shoppers with one digital connection were primary shoppers, while 80 percent of shoppers with six digital connections were primary shoppers.

The analysis found an even stronger relationship between shopper satisfaction with their in-store experience and the shopper’s number of digital connections. Using net promoter scores to measure shopper satisfaction, the study found that shoppers with six digital connections were more than three times as likely to recommend the store to others than those with only one digital connection.

“While the results don’t establish direct cause and effect yet,” said Bill Bishop, chief architect of BMC. “However, the relationships are striking enough to suggest that building digital connections can help grow primary shoppers, and that increasing digital connections can drive up satisfaction with shopping the store.”

The report releases in early October, and covers three questions that are crucial to senior grocery management as they contemplate a future in which daily newspaper circulation continues to shrink, mass communications are less effective and efficient, and digital connections have become a permanent part of shoppers’ lives:

• How does expanding the number of digital connections relate to increased sales?
• What needs to be done to pull the digital connections together into a communications program that encourages shoppers to spend more?
• Where are shoppers today in their interest and engagement in buying groceries online and how is this expected to increase in the future?

“To our knowledge, this is the largest survey of grocery shoppers’ experience with digital to date,” said Steve Bishop, managing director of Brick Meets Click. “More than 22,000 shoppers from six US-based retail banners across the country participated in the study.”