The European Shopper

Segmenting shopping habits in Europe

Retail and distribution is one of the most dynamic commercial sectors across Europe. As the continent integrates and grows older and wealthier, there are growing similarities in the way European consumers like to shop, similarities so marked that traditional country-limited, demography-driven and attitudes-only retail segmentations are becoming less potent.

Consumers' shopping experiences can plainly differ from sector to sector. And with the growth of stores that operate across different product categories, the utility of a segmentation that does not make this distinction is limited.

With this in mind, the Future Foundation recently launched a major new research programme aiming to develop a unique behaviour-based shopping segmentation across Europe in three retail sectors: grocery, clothing and home electronics. The segmentation is powerful enough to analyse each sector individually, but also to examine the relationship between shopping behaviours across different sectors.

Asking people about the last time they went shopping rather than their attitude to shopping in general, and covering a wide range of topics - from how enjoyable did you find your last shopping experience to I bought items I had not planned to buy even though it was at the normal price or I went to more than one retailer than sells the product I'm looking for - we build a detailed picture of the ways in which people shop.

Our research involved an in-depth cross-European quantitative survey to identify distinctive modes of shopping behaviour, look at the kinds of people most likely to make these shopping trips in each country, as well as meet several respondents in more detail. We also looked at the prospects for growth in various retail sectors and reviewed the state of online shopping in Europe.

Sample findings and highlights

• Nearly half of European consumers say they would be willing to pay as much as 10% more for grocery items if they could be sure that they would not harm the environment.
• When shopping for clothes, 69% in Europe say they make every effort to find the ideal product and over two thirds succeed.
• 40 to 54 year olds are the fastest growing online shopping group. By 2009, they will spend more timing shopping online than 15 to 24 year olds.

Reasons to buy

• A strategic tool for sector and geographic expansion based on a rigorous quantitative cross-market segmentation. The research will be particularly valuable for retailers who are considering moving into more than one market category or who wish to sustain a profitable presence in multiple categories.
• Highly actionable for property and marketing strategy - based on actual shopping behaviour, not just attitudes, related to general attitudes and behaviours beyond shopping, geo-demographic (Mosaic) coding.
• Future-orientated segmentation - the segmentation is dynamic and as such would be a perfect tool to feed into a retailer's five-year strategic plan.
• Will aid marketers by providing a detailed understanding of shopping behaviour and how it is changed.

Methodology

The research was conducted in 2007 across 14 countries in Europe with a total sample of 15,386 aged 16+. The sample is nationally representative of each country and the breakdown of the sample is listed in the table below.

The interviews were all conducted in 2007. All interviews were face to face apart from Norway, Sweden and Denmark, which were online interviews.

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