To what extent does income influence consumers’ store choice?

Krisztina Kovács, sector manager, Consumer Tracking: GfK Hungária’s Retail Analysis 2010 helps us in answering the question in the title. Nearly nine out of ten households bought something in a discount store last year. New hard discount stores are more popular among consumers with a higher income, while older discount chains are frequented by the elderly and people with a lower income.

Hypermarkets’ popularity does not fade – the number of their shoppers is stable. Buying in the units of the biggest chain represents the national average but at the others households with a bigger income are overrepresented. Small nearby shops’ significance kept growing last year: this channel managed to acquire customers from all other store types. Supermarkets’ problem is that wealthier shoppers tend to favour hypermarkets and more price-sensitive consumers might be deterred by the fact that prices are perceived to be the highest in this channel.

• Péter Sári, innovation manager: The growing popularity of social shopping indicates that finding the best price became a more decisive factor in consumers’ store choice than it had been before. Consumers who are open to online shopping have a new chance for economising. On the sellers’ side they just follow the old retail rule: if someone buys bigger volumes gets a bigger discount. The ‘revolution’ started when in 2008 Groupon founder Andrew Mason realised that consumers can form purchasing associations on a website, where the offers of manufacturers and potential buyers can meet: the manufacturer makes an offer and if enough buyers sign up to buy each of them gets the discount offered, which can be as big as 50 percent. Buyers can pay via the website and they even get a coupon. Bónusz Brigád and Kuponvilág offer similar services in Hungary.

• István Fehér, communications director, SPAR Hungary: Several former myths seem to be defied because retail changes and develops rapidly. Consumers and stores both change and influence each other. If someone intends to economise they do not necessarily have to switch from one store type to another. SPAR’s policy is to shape the assortment of products we offer with our customers’ shopping habits in mind, so that we can give customers with various different income levels exactly what they want, without having to make compromises in terms of quality.