Re-Envisioning Online Shopping Through The Eyes Of The Shopper

By P. Cloutier – Commercial Strategy Lead; G. Hedges – Sr. Dir, Digital Strategy

The retail landscape has undergone a significant transformation as consumers increasingly embrace a combination of in-store and online shopping. It’s part of an ever-evolving total omnichannel shopping experience that brands and retailers must win.

And there’s plenty at stake. US-focused eCommerce sales are predicted to reach $1.4 trillion this year . Grocery Doppio reported total digital grocery sales reached $128 billion dollars in 2022 , and estimated sales growing to $146 billion in 2023.

That is not to say it’s an easy or simple journey ahead — growing online sales remains a complex journey for brands and retailers.

And while there are infrastructure and logistic challenges to solve, to significantly speed its growth, the overall online shopping experience needs to evolve. It’s all about experience. Full stop. And right now, the shopper experience online in CPG and FMCG is functional at best — and that’s if you know exactly what you want. It’s challenging to find an enjoyable shopping experience, especially in CPG and FMCG, built around inspiration and discovery…which will be critical to unlocking the full potential of omnichannel commerce. ?

So, what’s the issue?

When it comes to online shopping, shoppers often report it can be a functional, boring and uninspired experience, easy to get lost in an “endless aisle”. Take the coffee category as an example.?If you wanted to buy some coffee in-store, you’d walk down the coffee aisle.?

Looking for Starbucks??You can see it. In the mood for Folgers? Look for red. Maxwell House??It’s there, in the blue canisters.

Now, visit your favorite retailer’s website. Go to the search bar and type in “coffee.” What do you see?

When searching for coffee online, the experience is vastly different. Retailers present the coffee category in a visually overwhelming manner, making it challenging to locate desired products or stumble upon new and exciting options. Consequently, shoppers’ resort to typing in specific brand names or utilizing complex filters, sacrificing the joy of browsing and discovering. No fun. No inspiration. No discovery.

Some simple solutions

There are, however, simple things retailers (and their brand partners) can do to make the online shopping experience more intuitive and productive.

If someone searches on a retailer’s site for beverages, their options should be presented to them in a simple, visual way that reflects the nuance of the category. Meijer and Target are examples of retailers that have explored elevating and visualizing key filters for search results.

Why visual filters? It’s because people process images faster than we do words. Like the aisle, retailers need to give shoppers a way to quickly parse out what they don’t want and find what they do. And what those filters are matters as each category will have its own nuances and taxonomy that will need to be considered —?not just to reflect what’s available or what triggers purchases today, but to facilitate discovery and orchestrate growth. ?

What else?

How else can we help shoppers understand their options, make quick selections and buy differently? As product varieties expand, it can get harder to make comparisons and understand the offering. By giving shoppers a visual way to see and select across the breadth of a product’s offering, retailers can help guide them toward newer and larger pack sizes, as well as new forms, flavors and variations. And that can deliver strategic growth.

Hy-Vee is an example of a retailer that has introduced variation into their experience, and it can be found at Walmart and Target as well. It’s something we’ve seen in fashion and beauty eCommerce for some time. However, the majority of the grocery landscape still lacks the ability for the shopper to see across the SKUs forcing them to keep searching for what they’re looking for over and over again…or worse give up and everyone loses. And again, implementing those variant selectors isn’t enough. There are category-based and ultimately shopper-based considerations that need to factor in to how they are implemented in order to make them effective.

Why do online shopping experiences too often make it hard for shoppers to find what they’re looking for? And why is it so hard to discover new and different products??In part because retailers have not provided the shopper with enough — or the right —tools to help them shop, focusing on infrastructure, operations and ads. And while very necessary parts of shaping an online experience, they don’t reveal the “why” hiding a level below. The simple act of talking to shoppers as they’re making decisions is a lost art, and the online shopping experience reflects that lack of empathy.

One size doesn't fit all

For retailers, there also needs to be a recognition that a “one size fits all” approach across categories will not produce optimal results. Pet parents buy and shop for pet food differently than parents buying cereal for their children. These categories are presented quite differently in store, so why does the shopping experience for those categories feel so similar online??

Brands can help by collaborating with retail partners, fueling their omnichannel evolution by providing the insights they need to design digital shopping channels and omnichannel experiences that reflect how shoppers actually see and shop a category and identifying where growth opportunities live.?Said differently, a more shopper-centric approach will reveal new avenues to growth.

Shopper empathy is the key

When it comes to online shopping, developing the right experience begins with talking to your shoppers, and giving categories permission to show up differently online, as they do in-store.?This more humanistic approach to evolving the online experience is a growth strategy brands and retailers can take to the bottom line. ?

This approach is precisely the one we take at ChaseDesign when working with our clients to create more persuasive brand and category-driven experiences, whether in-store or online. Our shopper-centric insights and design solutions fuel more effective collaboration between manufacturers and retailers. The end result is more productive growth-oriented shopping experiences, that engage shoppers, orchestrate their behavior and ultimately benefit our client’s brands.??