We are all consumers. Our acts of purchase are due to several factors: economic, psychological, sociological, intellectual, etc. Here we will only analyze those related to their frequency and comfort.
What before, and without a doubt still today, is a very important factor, the price, takes on less relevance over time. The price differences between the main competitors are increasingly insignificant and in such a long assortment they are diluted.
Other factors such as assortment, comfort and, above all, time saving become one of the decisive keys to the purchase factor.
If we take into account the concentration of the population in large cities, we will realize the importance of the fact, all this coupled with the most important factor of the last three decades: the incorporation of women into labor society in a massive way. The role of women as housewives as the only profession is a scheme of little validity. The act of buying is increasingly familiar, more playful, more shared. What a few years ago was unthinkable: the man with her cart, her list, stocking up in a large area is today an increasingly common image.
We could classify purchases today into several types:
- Occasional Shopping Proximity Shopping Convenience Shopping Consumer Shopping Specialist Shopping
Occasional Purchase
We could call an occasional purchase the type of purchase that is made sporadically and that tends to cover a need not previously satisfied and postponed in time by the consumer. This type of purchase also includes impulse purchases and smaller amounts that cover basic needs. The most common places where these occasional purchases are made are in markets, flea markets, fairs, the new "all a hundred" stores, traditional stores, 24 hours, super, etc.
Proximity Purchase
Proximity purchases respond to a need: to satisfy the demand for food and household supplies in a practical, fast and close way. They cover basic needs and usually tend to cover a relatively short period of family consumption, daily or all the most weekly. In recent years, “hard discounters” have grown spectacularly, local supermarkets belonging mostly to multinational, German or French brands that respond to this need. Proximity shopping has an unusual expansion in our country, a reflection of the type and way of life of our society. The concentration of the population in cities and neighborhoods. Currently they proliferate, like bank branches,the supermarkets that every day tend to replace the traditional grocery store is a good reflection of the importance of this type of purchase.
The implanted chains have a very defined profile:
- Economy of scale Belonging to national or multinational chains that buy together Proliferation of own brands, also called private labels, Scarce assortment and focused on mass consumer food and household products Pace of weekly offers Lack of parking
Lately, there are more and more brands that implement a series of services focused on customer loyalty (vouchers, coupons, cards) as well as home delivery service from a certain volume of purchase. Within this group, it is worth highlighting chains such as DIA, Unide, Sabeco, Zero etc.
Convenience Shopping
As we explained before, the new conditions of life and habitat undoubtedly condition the forms of consumption. Lack of time, the incorporation of marriage into working life, causes new forms of distribution to proliferate whose strong point or differentiating factor is comfort over other features. In this sense, it is worth noting the enormous development and diffusion of food delivery companies as well as telephone purchases or electronic purchases through the Internet. Likewise, the purchase of comfort has its reflection, more and more common, in that every day there are more large surfaces that, in order not to lose power in that field and aware of the new reality, have introduced new services such as home delivery, purchase by Internet etc.
The purchase of comfort is undoubtedly one of the development segments for the coming years. Aware of this, there are many companies that take advantage of their logistics or technological infrastructure to take a very important part of the constantly growing market share that is due to a latent need in society. Some of the most important examples in this sector are reflected in Telepizza, El Corte Inglés and its Internet division as well as Alcampo, Carrefour, etc. It is worth mentioning the example of asuhora.com, as an example of the use of three elements: Situation, logistics and technology. Likewise, the incorporation of supermarkets to this way of understanding the purchase (Condisline.com)
Consumer Purchase
Although the definition may seem like a truism, since all purchases are intended in principle for consumption, this name is intended to distinguish the massive and more durable character in the time of provision of the customer. Indeed, the number of customers who distribute their family budget in each type of consumption is progressively increasing. They shop weekly in the so-called proximity stores, order some specialist articles via the Internet and make the bulk of their purchase in large stores with a periodicity close to fifteen days (according to the latest studies). This purchase has almost a family nature and in recent years some important components have appeared when analyzing the mode and manner of provisioning of the Spanish.
Frequently, families move to the outskirts of cities, to shopping parks, so that in a day of shopping or in a few hours, they supply themselves for a longer period of time. These commercial parks are currently real leisure centers of consumption and without a doubt close the circle, almost perfectly, of the needs of the whole family.
From the large hypermarkets, to the specialists or «category killers», the franchises of the most diverse brands of textiles, furniture, electrical appliances, gastronomy, leisure, DIY, perfumery, etc., they form a city of leisure and consumption designed by and for the client. All this complemented with the services around one of the great protagonists and undoubtedly an added family member: The car. Large supermarkets regularly install their own gas stations and car maintenance shops offering attractive prices as an important claim to attract their customers. It is easy to see how the discount of x pesetas per liter of gasoline is linked to a consumption of x pesetas within the hypermarket.
The policy of implantation of brands such as Lidl, which seeks the surroundings of these shopping parks to gradually attract a clientele accustomed to this type of consumption, deserves special mention. In principle, its policy differs from the traditional " hard discounter " in several differentiating elements:
- Slightly higher sales area Existence of parking. Carts. Physical configuration more like a mini-hyper
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