What do shoppers say about the new retail tools?

This article is available for reading in Trade magazin 2024/4

Consumer Panel Hungary GfK-YouGov presented the latest research results on retail devices at the Future Store stand, organised by Trade magazine, at the SIRHA Budapest 2024 exhibition, 5-7 March. From left to right: senior consultants Veronika Niederfiringer and Andrea Földvári

Shoppers were asked how much they like these innovations, whether they use them or would use them, and what the reasons are if they don’t like them. 3,246 heads of households took part in the survey and the results of the survey were first presented in detail during the guided tours in Trade magazin’s Future Store stand at SIRHA Budapest 2024.

1. 83% have the online leaflets in their pocket (since they are reading them on a smartphone).

2. 33% at least occasionally buy FMCG products online, mainly young people, shoppers with a higher status and those raising children.

3. Payments are still dominated by debit cards, but mobile payments are taking over from debit cards: their share grew from 8% to 13% in 2 years.

4. The most popular is the REpont concept – 84% of the people would use the drink packaging return machines and two-thirds even like them.

5. REpont can be successful if users can find a solution for storing the drink packagings before they are returned – in a way that the containers remain intact, which requires a lot of space – and that return doesn’t involve queuing and the process itself is very simple.

6. Scan&Go has become one of the most popular concepts (self-service barcode scanning): most people like it and would use it if it were available to them.

7. A completely cashierless shopping still seems unnecessary for most people, and concerns about data security have also increased significantly.

8. Compared to 2022, fewer people find pre-ordering from the deli counter useful (46%), but the concept is particularly popular among the youngest shoppers (63% would use it).

9. As regards pre-ordering from the deli counter, typically shoppers don’t think it is useless, what holds them back from using the service is more that they can’t choose what they are buying personally.

10. For the time being, the chatbots of retailers are only interesting to few shoppers: a mere one-third of them would use them. //