85% of UK consumers still prefer to shop in-store, survey finds

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Mar 25, 2019

The vast majority of UK consumers still prefer to shop in-store, but will research a product online before making a purchase, according to new research.

Indeed, 85% of shoppers still prefer physical shops to online shopping – mostly because it means they will receive the product as soon as they have purchased it, a survey of 1,056 UK adults conducted by Marketing Signals has found.

94% of those surveyed said they will always research a product online before making a purchase decision, and 78% prefer to see and feel a product in-store before going online to find the best price.

The results underline the need for a new omnichannel marketing approach where retailers can track their customers’ journey across multiple channels and touchpoints to accurately measure the ROI of their digital spend, Marketing Signals said.

“Retailers who utilize digital technologies to drive in store footfall, whilst tracking and attributing customers to their digital spend are setting themselves up most likely to succeed in the modern age,” commented Gareth Hoyle, managing director at Marketingsignals.com.

“In an ideal world, consumers would rather visit a store to make a purchase, though due to time constraints, stock issues and ultimately, convenience, many turn to shopping online. This is a lesson for retailers to ensure their digital presence is working as hard as it possibly can for them, offering an omnichannel journey and an experience that is most convenient for customers.

“Technologies such as Google Store Visits allow retailers to directly attribute digital marketing spend to increased footfall. Retailers that embrace proximity marketing and beacon technology can directly speak to customers in store – for example, if they are in store and go onto Google to shop around, the retailer can force a pop-up notification to the user’s phone (via bluetooth) with the offer of a discount code or similar.”

He said loyalty schemes and e-receipt services are very helpful with attributing digital spend to in-store footfall, as they provide information about who the customer is and can attribute in-store sales to their email address.

“The retailers who are embracing these kinds of technology are able to much better understand their customer and deliver accurate digital ads to them – keeping themselves front of mind, without overloading them with online ads,” Hoyle concluded.