Retail surgery: Our estimates of the number of customers who shop across more than one channel are much lower than our competitors’. Why is this?

A study of consumer multichannel shopping behaviour just released by Leo Burnett Group shows that 86% of shoppers are using two or more shopping channels to search for and purchase some products.

This is a much higher percentage than even the most integrated multichannel retailers are witnessing. But the key point is that it is hard to track your customers’ behaviour before the point of purchase.

Leo Burnett Group head of retail strategy Alan Treadgold explains: “What we found was that shoppers were not habitually going to the same retailer in different channels. For instance, when looking for mobile phones the search may start with Google or the telcos’ websites - but they don’t necessarily stay with the brands that they start with in the search process.”

He continues: “The multichannel part of the behaviour is for search - then they might go to a store, a retailer’s website or somewhere like Amazon or eBay. It varies a lot by product category.”

Treadgold adds: “Multichannel shopping behaviour reflects the attitude of shoppers, and the products they are buying.” So retailers need to understand the type of shopper that dominates in their category, to decide the channel mix that will work for them.

The research has found that the recession has driven multichannel shopping behaviour, whether customers use multiple channels to research cheapest prices, or to find brands they normally buy on Sale.