THROUGH THE EYES OF SHOPPERS

April 13, 2017

As businesses consider how to stay relevant with their shoppers, it seems like common sense to focus on one particular discipline: try to understand the changes through the eyes of those very shoppers.

It may sound simple, but it rarely is.

That was the exact perspective employed by Michele Orndorff, senior manager in Kurt Salmon’s Retail Strategy Group, in her work as the lead researcher working with the Coca‑Cola Retailing Research Council of North America. Orndorff’s work was critical in creating “Surviving the Brave New World of Food Retailing,” the council’s newest report.

“We were really pleased to have consumers validate our hypotheses about the future of food retailing. Having consumers support our findings on the trends and the disruptive forces is important because they are going to drive what’s on down the road,” Orndorff said in a new podcast about the CCRRC study.

Understanding how the customer experience is already shifting through the use of electronic commerce sites and other forms of technology is essential to remaining relevant to those very same shoppers, she said.

The report can be accessed for free at www.ccrrc.org, and Orndorff’s podcast is available for listening and downloading below. Check back in two weeks for the next installment where we discuss how retailers should analyze shoppers’ behavior to meet their needs.