European consumers ready for the stores of the future: study

Over the coming years, e-commerce will not replace brick-and-mortar stores but will continue to challenge them — this is the primary conclusion of a report published Feb 6 by the Observatoire Cetelem, a research institute devoted to the study of European consumer behaviour trends. 

In a large-scale survey spanning 12 European countries, the institute found that — notwithstanding the rapid growth of online retail — many consumers have no intention of giving up on traditional stores. But that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement on the old brick-and-mortar model. 

Of the Europeans surveyed, 43% said they shopped either mostly or entirely at brick-and-mortar stores and did not plan to change their habits. 

Nonetheless, most consumers recognise that shopping online has its advantages: shoppers are not restricted by opening hours, and they can take their time browsing through a wealth of reviews and other information on the products that interest them. 

Not least of all, the Web allows consumers to find the lowest price on a given product in a few clicks. 

Since avoiding overpaying becomes a top priority when making major purchases, many consumers conduct product research online before heading to a store to make their transaction. 45% of the consumers surveyed said they use this strategy when buying home entertainment goods (TV, stereo, etc.), home appliances, furniture or even decorative items. 

The Observatoire's findings also indicate that consumers are open to using technology to make their in-store experience more efficient — 41% of Europeans use their smartphone at the point of sale to compare prices with those of other stores, while 31% used tablets or in-store interactive consoles to locate products that interest them. 

Meanwhile, 23% of consumers reported that they have snapped a photo of the product under consideration in order to get opinions from friends. 

The gap between e-commerce and brick-and-mortar stores is narrowing, in part through innovative hybrid solutions. 

In the US, for example, Wal-Mart recently expanded tests of its "To Go" service, which allows consumers to select and pay for their groceries online and then pick them up in a designated area at their local store. The service is currently available in Northern Virginia (outside of Washington, D.C.), Philadelphia, Minneapolis, San Jose, San Francisco and now Denver. 

In France, a number of supermarket chains have begun offering this type of service, which is known in the country as "le drive." The Observatoire Cetelem's study highlighted the importance to consumers of being able to retrieve their purchases in a designated area rather than amid the hustle and bustle of the store: 73% of respondents said they would only consider taking advantage of this type of service if this was the case. 

Brick-and-mortar in the information age 

Although a number of consumers surveyed expressed their ongoing preference for traditional shopping, many of them also indicated that brick-and-mortar stores could make certain improvements in order to compete with the advantages of e-commerce. 

Store employees should be experts on the products they are selling, according to 66% of consumers surveyed. When a given product is unavailable at the point of sale, 38% of consumers said they would appreciate the ability to place an order online while on site. 39% expressed the same desire for products that are out of stock. 

In addition, 66% of consumers said they would be more inclined to shop at a store that allowed them to scan the contents of their shopping basket or cart without taking out every item. This could be accomplished through the use of scanning technologies at the checkout or through automated shopping carts such as the one presented by Whole Foods in 2012. 

As the Observatoire Cetelem study puts it, the stores of the future will not only need to "make the advantages of e-commerce their own." Most of all, they will need to "show proof of their own modernity." 

The study pointed to a number of potential improvements that caught the attention of the European consumers surveyed — 51% of them would be interested in reserving a parking space before heading to the store. 57% would be more inclined to shop in a store that has childcare facilities or a play area for children, while 47% would like to take part in fun, leisure-related activities related to the products on offer. 

On a more practical note, 60% of survey respondents said they would like to be able to purchase second-hand goods in stores, while 79% said they would like to be able to turn in the used goods they no longer needed. 

"The demands expressed by European consumers in this latest edition of the Observatoire Cetelem underscore the essential nature of brick-and-mortar stores, but especially of those that embrace new technologies.  

"Online behaviours should be able to find expression in offline contexts via digital equipment at the point of sale (tablets, interactive consoles) and via smartphone apps that allow stores to monitor, satisfy and even appeal to the consumer," the study concludes. 

TNS Sofres surveyed 7,918 European consumers for the study, including samples of at least 500 individuals from each of the 12 countries involved (Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and the UK). — ©AFP/Relaxnews 2014