Habits govern grocery shopping – but how much?

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The business school at the University of Newcastle is investigating the role of habits in consumer behaviour, in particular the role that habits play in grocery shopping.

The project includes an anonymous survey (open until 1 February 2013) seeking consumers’ experience and understanding of their use of habits while shopping for groceries. Survey participants can enter a draw to win a shopping voucher.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HGPB

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Kyle Holmes of the University of Newcastle team describes the project:

Behavioural studies show that up to 45% of our daily activities are undertaken based purely on habit[1]. For example, while grocery shopping up to 41% of consumers engage in what is considered explicit habitual purchasing that involves no, or very limited apparent product consideration prior to product selection and purchase[2] . When this behaviour is considered within the context of the volume of revenue generated by the supermarket industry, the implications of this behaviour are significant.

With the average grocery store holding anywhere from 20,000 items[3] the array of options and variances that are available to the consumer to consider are overwhelming. To rationally consider the best value on offer for each product that we select for purchase during a grocery trip is an incredibly difficult task. Try, for example, to consider every action and decision that is required to drive your car home from work of an afternoon. The sheer volume of decisions and situational assessments required to complete task is simply staggering. Consider then, attempting to make this volume of decisions and judgements whilst also internally dealing with pressures from your home and work life, pressure that often generates an emotional and mentally distracting response.

Habits allow us to efficiently and effectively manage and deal with the vast array of information we receive every day and help to ensure that the most desired outcome, for example a safe and efficient return home from work, is achieved with a minimum of cognitive stress, e.g. you rely on your previous assessment of the situation, for example the best route home, to determine the outcome of your decisions rather than consistently reconsidering what you need to do at every point along the road.

The current project will investigate what drives our grocery shopping habits. It will look at the phenomena of habitual behaviour in grocery shopping routines and purchasing behaviours from a holistic perspective by considering both the effects of retailer established cues and personally held factors on our habits.  To do this, we are seeking participants to complete an online survey. The survey is designed to help you become introspectively aware of your grocery shopping habits, and you may just be surprised by what you learn about yourself!  The link to participate in the study is below:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HGPB

The survey is anonymous and no personally identifiable information is collected. At the end of the survey, instructions are provided on how you can enter a random draw to win 1 of 5 $20 shopping vouchers. The survey is open until Friday, 1^stof February, 2013.