New Insights into Shopper Behavior – with Some Surprises

Happy New Year to all my readers, and best wishes for 2014! Of course, the retail year starts off with a bang at the NRF trade show being held in New York on Jan.  12-15. Cisco is at the show expo on Jan. 13-14, and will be featuring four company thought leaders in the annual NRF Big Idea sessions. I sat down with Jon Stine, director of solutions development at Cisco and a widely recognized expert in retail analysis, to find out more about his NRF session.

Q: Jon, tell us what you’ll be talking about at NRF this year.

A: For the fourth year, we are featuring our annual “Catch ‘Em and Keep ‘Em” survey, which polls 1,200 demographically selected respondents across the US to assess current shopper behavior. This year we expanded the survey to collect information on personalization and the use of data gathering on shoppers in the store.

Q: Any exciting or unexpected findings?

A: Yes, definitely. I won’t give away everything, but let me give you just one example: Right now, we’re experiencing a flurry of fear in retail, and much negative press coverage, around how much information it’s appropriate to gather on customers. But guess what? Our survey shows that a large percentage of shoppers are actually willing to share personal data with retailers if they receive sufficient value in return.

Q: What do you think are the most important topics you’ll discuss at NRF?

A: We’ll talk about the frameworks and service models that retailers need to develop when it comes to thinking about their data relationship with shoppers. We’ll cover the new “uberdigitals,” an emerging group of new consumers who always shop using a device, and the latest news on Millineals now entering their primary consumption years. And, I’ll discuss consumer data preferences, how social media is being used in shopping decisions, and the latest trends in cross-channel behaviors.

Time and Place:

“Digital Shopper Behavior in Today’s Internet of Everything World” with Jon Stine takes place on Monday, Jan. 13, at 9:15-10:00 am, in Room 4 on Level 3 of the Expo Hall. For those who can’t be there, a recording of the session will be available after the show. Visit Cisco’s NRF website to learn more, and do take the time to stop by Cisco booth #1954.