Consumers today increasingly recognise their own importance and, hence, influence over products and stores. This will undoubtedly change the way in which they want to shop in the future. Already many customers claim to be dissatisfied with their existing shopping options, especially with their perishable food outlets, according to consumer research carried out by Capgemini. In a survey just 9% of those questioned said they were satisfied with these forms of outlets.
The survey, Future Consumer, was designed to test a number of assumptions made in the 2016- Future Value Chain report published by the Global Commerce Initiative, Capgemini and Intel in 2006.
A central element in this vision was the notion that consumers will drive the future value chain.
This still appears to be true so it is essential to have more factual evidence about how and in which direction this will occur. It is clear that buying behaviour is changing and increasingly customer are establishing a two-way dialogue with the seller. Improved knowledge about how this is occurring should help companies develop and execute more effective strategies in areas such as marketing and advertising, store formats, logistics and transportation, product installation and aftersales servicing.

Healthy lifestyle
The Future Consumer survey questioned over 2000 consumers in four countries: US, UK, France and the Netherlands taking a balanced cross section of the population in terms of gender, age and financial status.
“We asked them how they behave now and how they are likely to behave I future. We asked what is important to you? What makes you purchase one product over another? And what is your preferred distribution channel?
Although what they say is no guarantee that this is what they will do it gives us a good insight,” said Kees Jacobs, Capgemini‘s principal consultant, global sector for consumer products and retail.
Certainly one of the most important issues in the future will be health and wellness (including diet and obesity care) with more than eight out of 10 respondents saying this would be important or extremely important to them over the coming years.
As well as national differences, the research uncovered some differences based on demographics. For example, women were more likely to rank health and wellness highly as important in comparison to men. Nine out of 10 women valued health and wellness, compared with eight out of 10 men. Furthermore, the older the consumer, the more likely they were to rank health and wellness as important.
About 90% of consumers over-50 valued health and wellness, compared with 82% of those in the youngest age group (18-34). With a greying population this is a market with huge potential.
In addition to “health and wellness” the other criteria which shone through was “sustainability”. This is deemed to be important ,by most consumers, but the majority are only willing to pay a small price difference for, products that support these features.

Sustainability
“It was apparent that sustainability is an important factor in the consumer’s decision making process but, although they value this, only 20% are prepared to pay a premium price for it,” said Jacobs.
Furthermore, consumers’ willingness to pay extra did not necessarily match the level of importance they applied to the various sustainability features. For example, although energy/water usage was identified as the most important aspect of sustainability, consumers were less willing to pay extra for it than they were for fair trade (providing better trading conditions and fair wages to economically disadvantaged producers and farmers), sustainable manufacturing and organic food.
But, conversely, if retailers can offer products from a sustainable means of production at the same price they will have an advantage.

Behaviour
Another area which is changing, rapidly is consumer buying behaviour.
“We discovered that consumers are no longer looking for the basic product but instead are seeking solutions to their personal needs. This was more apparent for electronic goods where they really value products which suit their individual lifestyle. For food products, where convenience is already a given, the needs are changing less,” said Jacobs.
There was a similar difference between perishables and non-perishables when respondents were asked through which channel they would most want to buy goods. And in particular if they would buy on-line.
“Only 20% of customers buying electronic goods said they would want to go to a store - the majority are happy to buy on line. For food shoppers this was 80% but we believe in future shoppers will be even more willing to go down this route.
One of the problems still to be overcome is how items bought on-line can best be delivered.
Customers now have the convenience of buying at home but then they also have to stay at home to have them delivered. An option is to have a pick-up point in the community, a proposal which nearly 20% of the respondents said they would be interested in.
The kind of service on-line buyers expect differs per category but in general they are interested in additionally receiving some sort of service or in creating some sort of contract by which they could receive discount if they exclusively shopped at one outlet for particular items.
Consumers are very much aware of the new technology available such as the internet to research products and gather information, to screens in store and being able to scan and pay for goods with mobile phones to. However, they are not always willing to use these technologies to buy products: different categories have different levels of maturity in this aspect.

Something in return
One of the most valuable tools to retailers is consumer information.
“In general we found that people are very open about giving information about their lifestyle and buying behaviour but they are reluctant to give contact information.
However, they do indicate that if they are treated in a personal way, such as having access to promotions, then in return they are willing to share information about themselves.
Basically they want a fair deal and they certainly do not want to be bombarded with non-relevant offerings. If they are misused by constantly receiving generic promotions then they get frustrated and are likely to go somewhere else,” says Jacobs.
Customers were also asked what criteria are important to them when buying a product. The top-ranked attribute was price, mentioned by 91% of consumers as important or extremely important. Price was followed closely by product and service. In relative terms, access and experience were mentioned less often, but still each had a score above 80%.
“It was also clear that companies will need to establish and maintain a true two-way dialogue with individual consumers and improve their face to shoppers – both in their physical and online stores. This will require more frequent format and merchandise assortment changes to keep up with the pace of consumer change.
They will need to be transparent in their information management and manage consumer data effectively.
Businesses will find it necessary to extend their distribution chain to the consumer’s home. And they will need to address sustainability in a serious manner. Most important, they will need to be open to new ways of working – driven by consumers.”