While consumers adopt digital technologies and incorporate them into their daily lives, brands face challenges on how to track consumers’ multi-platform paths to purchase. Recognizing and responding to these changes in consumer behavior is a critical challenge, which when successfully met, can become a competitive advantage.
Online research via computer and mobile devices is increasingly common in consumers’ purchasing journey, and customers are highly influenced by their digital research when shopping goods in a range of categories. It is estimated that digital technologies influence more than half of consumers’ in-store purchases. Today, product research and the act of final purchase commonly take place through different channels. For example, consumers may use multiple devices, website and apps to research, then make their final purchase in store – or vice versa.
Day in the life of a millennial fashion shopper
Today we will focus on a demographic which is highly influenced by research, and engaged in technology – millennials. And a product category which has an abundance of influential material available online – fashion, to take a look at a ‘day in the life’ of a millennial fashion shopper. We have analyzed passively collected mobile data to examine, in detail, the path which one UK based panelist took in making fashion purchases on one particular day. Let’s call her Katie!
This type of analysis is used by our clients to understand the full picture of their customers purchasing patterns, not just the slice which is available from the data they have about customer interactions with their own brand. This data helps brands to identify moments of receptivity to advertising messages, and also informs below the line marketing strategies.
Katie is an employed Millennial woman who is clearly interested in fashion, beauty and celebrity culture. Looking at her passive mobile data, we found that she used her mobile phone to specifically look for a bomber jacket and a jumper throughout the day, comparing various online stores and apps.
Katie started her morning by browsing the chosen items on the websites of Stradivarius, H&M and New Look. In the afternoon she checked a bus timetable in a bus app, although, she didn’t use her commute to continue researching the products.
Later in the afternoon Katie decided to unwind by streaming Channel 5 on her mobile, watching a celebrity video on YouTube and reading a beauty blog and celebrity gossips on Reveal Magazine.
She spent her late afternoon and early evening researching clothing by browsing boohoo.com, New Look and Footasylum websites as well as the Primark app.
From this example we can see that there are various opportunities to target Katie to influence her purchasing decision, and in the best case scenario, entice her to buy. It also proves the importance of pre-purchase research, even when it comes to items that do not require too much consideration.
