In our last week’s podcast, we discussed why retailers should stop using the term “omni-channel” as it’s not a strategy anymore, but an expectation. Retailers must move from omni-channel to focusing on shopper modes as the new purchase channels. The biggest change that’s happened through the pandemic, related to customer experience, is customer expectations.

“So it’s this shift that’s happened forcefully, it’s been gradually happening but it’s forcefully happened throughout 2020 from, “I’m going shopping today,” to, “I need something right now when I want it.” And that’s really driving consumers and how they’re purchasing versus a channel” states Kristin Demel, Retail Strategy Director at Callahan.

It’s important for brands and retailers now, to understand the five different types of shopper experiences that consumers are looking for as they’re shopping and engaging with a brand:

• Task mode – I’ve got a list of things and it needs to get done quickly.





• Social mode – Shopping is a social activity and I may or may not make a transaction.





• Discovery mode – I’ve got something in mind but not sure where I need to go or what it might be yet.





• Entertainment mode – The goal for my shopping trip is purely entertainment.





• Aspirational mode – I’m looking to plan a vacation or plan a family dinner, etc.

Now that consumers can get anything from anyone whenever they want, they now have higher expectations of who they’re spending money with. Retailers and brands must know how to deliver on what consumers want, when they want, how they want it and in the shopping experience mode they’re in at the moment. In this podcast, Kristin and Joe Cox, Director, Communication Strategy at Callahan discuss the five shopper modes that are driving consumers now.

Listen here:

Other podcasts in our Retail Wrap-up 2020 series include:

• Retail Wrap-Up 2020: Why this is a one-of-a-kind holiday season





• Retail Wrap-Up 2020: Stop saying omni-channel





• Retail Wrap-Up 2020: Will Black Friday ethics lead to retail innovation?





• Retail Wrap-Up 2020: The current state of customer loyalty





• Retail Wrap-Up 2020: Setting goals for 2021

Joe:
Welcome to Callahan’s Uncovering Aha podcast. This is a place where we talk about a range of topics for marketing decision-makers with a special focus on how to uncover insights and data to then drive brand strategy and inspire creativity. My name is Joe Cox, I lead the communication strategy here for Callahan and today I am joined once again by Kristin Demel, our director of retail strategy and we are continuing our Retail Wrap-up 2020 series. This time talking with Kristen about the large shift in consumer behavior since the pandemic and how that will be affecting this 2020 holiday retail season.

Joe:
And just as a small reminder, we started this conversation on holiday 2020 about a month ago so we have a couple, if this episode is interesting to you, you can go back and catch the previous two and we’ll be continuing this on … for the rest of the holiday season.

Joe:
With all that activity it could be easy for brands and retailers to feel the need to quickly react this holiday season versus that intentional planning and strategic way in that we’re all searching for. So what we’re talking about here really is not to affect your plans right now because we know those plans are going, right? You have your head down, but what we want to do is help you observe what’s going on in retail holistically to be able to go into 2021 really taking those lessons from what we’re learning this holiday season.

Joe:
So to get started, Kristin, you really can’t avoid hearing about consumer behavior changing during 2020. I mean, it’s everywhere and a lot of it is around this large shift to online shopping, right, because that has brought people in that have never been in and there’s really been a necessity for it for the first time. How should brands and retailers be thinking about their omni-strategy, right, their omni-channel strategy that goes in retail as well as digital channels?

Kristin:
Hey, Joe, thanks for having me today. I’m super excited to talk about this topic with you. You’re exactly right. Right now we can’t avoid hearing about this massive shift to online. I think I get greater than 20 emails a day from research companies and marketing agencies, et cetera, all making sure that I know that customers are now shopping online and that I should be ready for that as a former retailer. And out of that omni has definitely become a big buzzword.

Kristin:
All these emails include omni-strategy, omni-strategy, et cetera. As you think about the history of omni with retail, retailers in the past have viewed this concept almost in a binary way. When they’re developing strategies, thinking about their tactics, even down to how they build teams and organizations with inside retail organizations it’s brick and mortar and online and it’s one or the other. And whole strategies and investments have been made against either brick and mortar or online.

Kristin:
But I think what’s interesting when you think about this from a strategic lens is that customers don’t actually think of themselves this way. A customer would never be sitting on their couch saying, “Okay, I’m going to go be a online shopper today,” or, “I’m going to go to a store.” So when you think about retailers and how they’re developing omni-channel as a strategy, I’m not sure if omni-channel is a strategy anymore or if it’s just the way of retail.

Kristin:
If you think about would a retailer ever develop a strategy that says, “You know what, I think I only want to be in one channel and be one thing.” That doesn’t necessarily sound like a strategy that you’re going to hear across the board. And so, I would almost say as we start to think about omni-channel, we should just stop saying omni-channel. It’s just retail now. Now I get it, it could be important as you think about what do I need to invest in from a capability’s perspective but that starts to put it as a tactic, not necessarily as a strategic choice.

Joe:
Yeah, it’s interesting how important sometimes words are and if you are really looking for ways and you said something really interesting of these two pieces, online shopping and in-store shopping being separate, separate budget line items and probably not a lot of communication there. The words that you use for that can either bring those budgets further apart and can start getting you to communicate with each other a little bit more and getting more integration in there.

Joe:
But if we’re not thinking about customers by channel, right, that’s how internally it’s been done for so long, then how do you think we’re going … what would you say are some ways in which we could think about it?

Kristin:
Yeah, so I think on this mind shift from reacting to what’s going on to starting to think intentionally the focus should really be on how customers are thinking. Customers, like we just said, are not thinking about themselves as an online shopper, a mobile shopper, a social shopper, a store shopper, et cetera. They’re just thinking, “what do I need? Where do I need to get it? How do I want to get it? And when do I need it?”

Kristin:
So it’s this shift that’s happened forcefully, it’s been gradually happening but it’s forcefully happened throughout 2020 from, “I’m going shopping today,” to, “I need something right now when I want it.” And that’s really driving consumers and how they’re purchasing versus a channel.

Kristin:
I think if you take this down to the younger generations you’ve got Gen Z that’s always been connected, so they don’t necessarily even think about shopping. They just are in one environment digitally and it just happens to translate into shopping or they’re out and about and that just also happens to end up at a retailer and they end up making some sort of transaction that way.

Kristin:
And so I think as we think about stopping the reactionary behavior that’s happening right now we r