Yesterday I posted a blog titled “Convenience Versus Experience.” Today in my inbox I get an email from one of the retail news outlets I subscribe. The subject line?

“Convenience vs Experience: What matters most to shoppers?”

It was a white paper on shopping habits. Yes, I had to download it.

Oracle Bronto did a survey of shoppers’ habits by age, income, children in the house, and need, to see how frequently people shop online, in stores, or both. Excluding grocery and convenience stores, the survey covered a lot of ground and revealed some interesting stats. (You can click on the link at the beginning of the paragraph to download the full results yourself. Just beware that Oracle is going to ask for all your info and try to sell you on their Bronto email software.)

One surprising stat was that Millennials were most likely of the age groups to shop often, and they shopped equally in stores and online. Bet you didn’t see that coming.

Another surprising stat was that Boomers were the group most likely to go online when they did go shopping. (They also shopped the least.)

Not surprising was that the more money you made, the more likely you would shop often.

Here is what the survey didn’t tell me …

It didn’t tell me how many times a customer went shopping in stores for Convenience versus Experience. One of the assumptions was that people shop online purely for Convenience and shop in stores purely for Experience. Unfortunately that assumption is false.

I’ll bet you know people who shop online for the experience, or at least to avoid the experience of shopping in stores. I’ll bet you also know people who shop in stores because they want the item today (convenience).

Hardware stores, for instance, were not excluded from the survey. When I go to a hardware store, it is for the convenience of getting the part I need to get the job done now (or at least within the next three trips.)

The one takeaway worthwhile is that people shop a multitude of ways by choice.

The only question you have to answer is if you are giving them enough reasons to choose you.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Even though their original question of “Convenience vs. Experience?” is flawed, the results of the survey are quite fascinating. It might be worth coughing up your spam-folder-email-address for the download.