Convenience Looming Ever Larger for Shoppers

Familiarity with store layout, already the most important factor in choosing a grocery store, is becoming still more important to the UK's shoppers according to IGD. However, improvements in shopping experiences over the last year are mainly put down to price factors.

Food and grocery think tank IGD run the Consumer Watch study to measure consumers' attitudes to food and associated issues. The latest findings show that price is still the second most important driver, chosen by 17% of consumers. Store layout has risen from 35 to 43% in the last year while price has slipped from 21% to 17%.

Top three determinants of store choice
	2004	2003
I know the store layout	43%	35%
I like the prices	17%	21%
It's the easiest store for me to get to	10%	14%

Base: 1,000 UK Consumers

Joanne Denney-Finch, Chief Executive IGD said 'IGD's findings show that consumers continue to be price conscious, but convenience and ease of shopping are the main reasons for choosing where they shop. It is encouraging to see that consumers recognise and appreciate that the grocery industry continues to be competitive and offers good prices. There is absolutely no doubt that in a competitive environment price will remain high on the agenda for retailers and manufacturers, but we must not lose sight of the fact that shopping made easy is still number one on the shoppers' agenda'.

Shoppers think things are getting better. An impressive 81% of consumers believe that shopping has improved for them in the past year and three of the top five improvements relate to price. The top five are:

• the price of food has not increased (25%)
• there are more discount stores in the area (20%)
• there are more price promotions in store (18%)
• there are more supermarkets in the area (18%)
• there are more farmers' markets/farm shops in the area (14%).

IGD also asked about the key factors in choosing foods and found a slight increase in concern over ingredients in the last year, whether for food choices in store or when eating out. Results are as follows:

Top three determinants of food choice in retail
	2004	2003
Knowing all the ingredients in a product	17%	15%
If it is a brand name I know	16%	15%
The price of the food	11%	12%

Top three determinants of food choice in foodservice
	2004	2003
Knowing all the ingredients in a meal	17%	14%
If I am going to like the taste of the food	16%	24%
The price of the food	13%	12%

The research used a nationally representative sample of 1,000 consumers from across the UK.

More information is available at www.igd.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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