Which retailers offer satisfying shopping experiences? Which do not? How might brands be reinvented as shopping experiences?
Procter & Gamble is growing its business by reinventing its brands as retail experiences: car washes (Mr. Clean) and dry cleaners (Tide). It’s no accident that they chose to reinvent retail experiences that most people tend to find less-than-satisfying.
This got us thinking: How would our readers rate their satisfaction in grocery, pharmacy or hardware stores, for instance? Are there any particular retail channels that might be ripe for reinvention by Procter & Gamble or someone else?
We pulled together a list of retail categories and asked readers to choose whether they are generally “satisfied” or “not satisfied” in each.
Based on results, it seems that most of us are generally satisfied with the shopping experience in most categories, although the margins are fairly close in most cases. The least satisfying retailers are pharmacies, toys, banks and cars.
By a large margin, respondents were most satisfied with books (83 percent!), although the retailer-of-choice seems to be Amazon more than Barnes & Noble. In a possible surprise, the next-highest most-satisfying type of retail is grocery, with 68 percent satisfaction. It seems that rather intense shopper love affairs with Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s are raising the industry average.
The next-highest satisfaction rating is in wine/spirits at 67 percent and shoes at 55 percent. Well … who doesn’t like shopping for booze and shoes? Maybe at the same time? Hardware stores did pretty well, too, also at 55 percent satisfaction. There is indeed something satisfying about the smell of galvanized nails.
Of course, “satisfaction” is a pretty low hurdle, set well below retail’s potential to engage and even excite shoppers. As might be expected, we received plenty of complaints about retailers and there’s lots of good insights for retailers in the verbatims:
Grocery: “Aisles of dull, boring packaged food, slow checkout, unhelpful assistants.”
Pharmacy: “Shelves are filled with food and paper goods, but the selection of drugstore items is slimmer and slimmer.”
Hardware: “Service staff looks at women in the store as if they’re from another planet.”
Home Entertainment: “Pushing products and features I don’t need or want.”
Books: “I don’t shop the retail category anymore, as I purchase all my books online.”
Wine/Spirits: “There’s either too much information, or not enough.”
Toys: “The atmosphere is crowded, noisy and hurried.”
Pet Care: “Wish it didn’t smell like a dirty cage.”
Banks: “Most banks give one the impression they’d like to do away with customers … and just deal with money.”
Florists: “It’s hard to find florists that give that special treatment anymore with special arrangements, as an art.”
We also asked respondents to identify the most important elements of the shopping experience, and the prevailing response could be summed up in two words: customer service. Nearly every comment mentioned customer service in some way, shape or form. Selection and navigation were also frequently cited.
Our question about “brand reinvention as retail experiences” also drew some imaginative responses: Mini Cooper as a hardware store. Pepsi as a technology store. Diet Coke as a resort/spa. BMW as a craft beer store. The Economist as a library. Subaru service stations, and Martin Guitar coffee houses.
A number of readers also said that their favorite brands already are retailers: Nordstrom, Anthropologie, Sephora, Coach, Target and, as usual, Apple. After all, the greatest brands invariably get it right at retail.
Respondent Profile
A total of 190 survey respondents included brand marketers (28%), consulting firms (25%), and agencies (15%). A majority were senior-level executives with 84% reporting more than 10 years of experience in marketing.
Survey results