Many companies are creating customer journey maps to get a better idea about the various stages, steps and decisions customers make along their journey. But a surprising few capture and integrate in-store qualitative research into their journey maps. Why not capture, analyze and integrate the insights from one of the most important shopping aspects – the trip to and through the store. The value of in-store insight can quickly, easily and affordably be accomplished – and provides information and insight few other methods can capture – that impact and drive important decisions.

Highlights of In-store qualitative researches

• Shopper Intercepts and Shop-alongs can capture feelings, preferences, decisions and rationale “at the moment they are making the decision”, more timely than online surveys, especially for products with an infrequent purchase cycle
• In-store qualitative research can capture pictures, videos and other imagery critical to the shopping decision and factor in merchandising layout, stock-outs, competing offers/promotions, pricing, product quality and the in-home need that drives product and brand selection.

A major CPG company found that when they captured this information, they learned that:

• Competitive packaging was driving a lower product quality perception of the products, despite the fact that On-shelf merchandising was “relatively on-brand” with few stock-outs
• 70% of shoppers were switching their brand pre-determination inside the store
• Brand and Retailer merchandising were much less important than previously imagined and that price was an important, but secondary factor in the shopper decision

If you are creating a customer journey, it isn’t complete until you include in-store survey research. Gold Research is the leader in in-store, online and at-home research. We have extensive experience in journey mapping, path-to-purchase research, deploying customer intercepts, in-store interviews, and mobile surveys for concept testing, marketing testing, satisfaction research, shopper insights, and mystery shopping. We can also act as an extension of your research team in helping with data processing, analysis, report development, and survey programming. Contact us at 1-800-549-7170 or send us an email for a free 30-minute consultation on this topic.