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In these dark days retailers can’t even rely on shopper loyalty
During hard times the need to engender loyalty among consumers becomes ever more important, which is why it is very disconcerting for the sector that it has declined at its fastest rate for the past decade.Verdict research found that as many as 10.8 million shoppers are disloyal to the stores they use (which equates to 22 per cent of all shoppers). What is most worrying is that the definition of a disloyal shopper is a person that would prefer to use an alternative store to the one they currently use most. Which must mean that they also find none of the alternatives attractive either, otherwise that would now be their most used store. The reality is that they are probably always in a state of unsatisfied/disloyal flux.
It is a sad indictment of UK retail if there is so much disloyalty to people’s most used stores and also little appeal from the alternatives, especially when the report highlighted that the disloyalty aspect is being partly driven by the large choice now available to consumers. Clearly while the choice is large it is also pretty ropey.
In amongst all this negativity there are a couple of positives. Firstly, the value supermarkets are proving increasingly attractive to the country’s disloyal shoppers because they provide a safe haven to the growing numbers of consumers who are on the hunt for quality bargains. Maybe these people will become loyal to these outlets?
Topics: Highstreet |
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