14.05.2020

Power your sales strategy with the GfK Consumer Insights Engine

With consumer purchase journeys becoming increasingly versatile, knowing which channels and which retailers are relevant for consumers – as they move from research to final purchase – is a winning strategy. A holistic understanding of the drivers behind purchase behavior is vital for convincing key retailers to display and promote your product offering.

 

Consumer purchase journeys are not what they used to be. And that’s not harking back nostalgically to the simplicity of the pre-online days – it could easily apply to even a few years ago. The fact is, the number of digital channels that consumers have at their fingertips is ever-increasing – and even going beyond their fingertips as voice-commerce begins to emerge. For example, 28% of recent buyers in the UK intend to use their smarthome device to track orders and delivery updates but 8% intend to use it to actually make a purchase 1.

 

Couple that with the fact that when it comes to technology and durables products, the “ROPO effect” (Research Online Purchase Offline) is still going strong. In the Germany TV market, for example, over half of those who researched a TV online actually went and bought one in an offline retailer 2.

 

This all goes to say, as touchpoints increase so too does the versatility of purchase journeys:  consumers are channel hopping more than ever to search, browse and eventually buy products. This increased complexity presents certain challenges for businesses looking to drive sales in such a demanding and fast-paced environment. The choice of channels and retailers may seem overwhelming, so having an easily accessible, holistic view of purchasing behavior that delivers immediate answers will allow you to decode the purchase journey and stay ahead of the game

1 Source: GfK Consumer Insights Engine- sample of  1,981  recent buyers in the UK who had purchased a smarthome device  in 2019

2 (Source: GfK Consumer Insights Engine- sample of 7,993 recent buyers in Germany who had purchased a TV in 2019).

Knowing which retailers matter is key

As Rudyard Kipling wrote in The Elephant’s Child: “I keep six honest serving men (they taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How And Where and Who.” Well in sales, these six insights can also teach you all you need to know to build a winning strategy. Especially “where” and “why”.

Optimizing and planning sales requires knowing where to play: on which channels and with which retailers. But that’s only half the battle. The other half is convincing those retailers why they should display and promote your products.

The what, where and when are already taken care of via GfK’s robust POS insights - GfK Consumer Insights Engine enhances the where and adds the who and why. For example, POS insights provide sales managers with the important channels in the online- and offline-world; the Consumer Insights Engine goes even further and provides insights as to which are the most important retailers in each of the channels. It will also provide the relevant insights to leverage purchase drivers and influence purchase decisions. And here’s the how: by harvesting quarterly data from millions of consumers around the world.

The GfK Consumer Insights Engine combines active and passive data sources to capture consumer insights across 13 markets worldwide focusing on 18 tech and durable product categories. It survey screens approximately 500,000 consumers globally each quarter to find recent buyers in any channel, calibrates to point of sale data unique to GfK and collects over 1 million online reviews from the world’s biggest retailers. All insights are then collected into one integrated digital platform, providing trusted and actionable insights to key business needs at speed.

Optimize your product offering across key retailers

The GfK Consumer Insights Engine will prove invaluable for sales managers and decision-makers in the tech and durable product categories who need access to up-to-date global insights in order to make quick and reliable strategic decisions: knowing which retailer partnerships to prioritize for example. Imagine the scenario:

You’re reviewing your go-to-market strategy for a product with a high-income earner target market. The sales targets are set – you now need to know which retailers would be the best fit. Which is an attractive channel to shop at for high income earners? Who performs well online and offline? Which can deliver a superior customer experience, well matched to the brand promises?

By logging on to the Consumer Insights Engine and setting filters, sales managers can look at retailer market share for the product, see their share of target shoppers, assess the customer experience via their Net Promoter Score and evaluate the volume sales. The outcome: retailer partnership recommendations that you know are based on only the most credible insights.

An easily accessible, holistic view of purchasing behavior

So whether it’s retailer partnerships, targeting and opportunity sizing, product features & messaging or touchpoint guidance, as the industry’s most comprehensive and integrated source of consumer insights, GfK’s Consumer Insights Engine will help your business answer a wide range of crucial needs.