What Is Shopper Marketing? Definition and Tactics

Have you ever been peckish at the grocery store, tried a free sample, and left with a two-month supply of cookies? Or bought custom shampoo because an Instagram ad captured your hair worry trip to a T? If so, you’ve seen shopper marketing at work.

To get a potential customer’s eyes on your products in today’s quick-paced globe, you require to meet them where it matters most: in the instant. The objective of any shopper marketing schedule is to propose people just what they’re looking for at just the correct period. These strategies mix data, innovation, and opportune timing to drive sales and construct lasting brand loyalty—all excellent things for a growing business.

What is a shopper marketing schedule?

Shopper marketing is a schedule that leverages behavioral insights to influence a customer’s purchasing decisions at critical points in their customer trip—from the instant they first discover about a product to the period they make a final purchase selection. While traditional marketing has myriad goals—including brand recognition, sales, and engagement—shopper marketing focuses on the experiences that influence customers to buy something. 

In a physical retail space, this can cruel enticing customers with tactics like flashy window displays or point-of-purchase displays. For ecommerce businesses, shopper marketing tactics can include creating personalized ads and recommendations and designing attractive product carousels.

Understanding shopper behavior

Understanding shopper behavior is critical for creating a shopper marketing schedule. To comprehend customer preferences, gather and analyze many sources of shopper data, including deal histories, web browsing patterns, social media interactions, and demographic information.

With artificial intelligence (AI), you can make predictive models that approximate shopper behavior and personalize the shopping encounter for various customer segments. For instance, a shopper’s history online behavior can trigger personalized discounts and product recommendations, or in-store sensors can track foot traffic to optimize product placement. 

You can also use data-driven insights to discover your target audiences, comprehend how they discover your store, and discover what influences their path to purchase. 

Effective shopper marketing tactics

• Visual merchandising
• Free samples
• Interactive demonstrations
• Dynamic advertising
• Customer loyalty programs
• Influencer marketing campaigns

You don’t require to hire an expensive shopper marketing agency to boost brand achievement. Use these tricks of the trade to entice shoppers, enhance customer satisfaction, and construct a brand identity that increases sales:

Visual merchandising 

Visual merchandising is a powerful shopper marketing schedule that targets customers who have entered your store. ponder about the last period you were at the supermarket. Did you view flowers near the point of purchase on Valentine’s Day? Candy on Halloween? School supplies in September? 

Studying in-store customer behavior can inform you what products are popular at sure times of the year, where sure items are likely to be most successful, and the prime locations for sure products. Use visual merchandising techniques such as endcaps, aisle displays, and free-standing signs to entice shoppers into making a sale.

You can use similar tactics on your online store as well, by showcasing seasonal products in carousels at the top of high-volume pages or as part of collections and recommendations.

Free samples

Few shopper marketing efforts have a more effective and immediate profitability on resource (ROI) than free samples. This schedule is a showstopper for brick-and-mortar stores that sell customer packaged goods (CPG), but it can also drive sales for online retailers. Allowing potential customers to try your product before purchasing takes the pressure off the buying procedure and generates goodwill.

For retail brands, work with retail partners to propose free samples at a booth in the store or have store personnel propose free samples during checkout. For online purchases, send customers trial-size products with their purchases, a tactic that’s particularly popular for skin worry, cosmetics, and fragrances. If your products are too large for a free sample (a furniture brand, for example), send free swatches of fabric, paint, or anything that will assist your potential customer get a tactile encounter. 

Interactive demonstrations 

Interactive demonstrations are a classic shopper marketing schedule brands and retailers use to make meaningful, personalized experiences for potential customers. Demos display customers what your product can do; plus, a well-trained representative can respond questions, provide suggestions, and nudge shoppers to make a purchase. Products that require some explaining or habit to get the hang of—like specialized cookware, pizza ovens, skin worry tools, etc.—typically advantage from demos.

Demo videos can advantage online shopping experiences just as well. Whether you do interactive livestreams, use virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) so customers can get a hands-on feel for your products, or distribute demonstrations on your YouTube channel, there are many ways to educate customers. For example, clothing brands use virtual fitting rooms so customers can view themselves in an outfit before adding it to their carts, and furniture companies use AR to assist shoppers view pieces in their own living spaces. 

Dynamic advertising

Physical stores can’t develop a brand marketing campaign for every demographic that might waltz by a storefront, but social media algorithms have become the perfect vehicle for personalized experiences. Dynamic ads automatically interpret user data to generate personalized content based on interests, behavior, and demographic information.

For example, you can make relevant, geo-targeted ads on Facebook and TikTok that display up on the For You pages of target shoppers in your specified geographic region. 

Customer loyalty programs

You don’t just desire to influence shopper behavior the first period around; you also desire your customers to arrive back. Customer loyalty programs target repeat customers, encouraging them to choose a brand they’ve tried and enjoyed already when they desire to make another purchase.

propose a loyalty program with exclusive discounts and bonuses for members like a punch card for a free 11th coffee, points they can earn and redeem at your online apparel store, or an extra 15% off for becoming a member and signing up to receive your email newsletter.

Influencer marketing campaigns

Shoppers tend to depend user-generated content (UGC) more than the polished ads brands pump out, making it a great, expense-effective schedule for tiny businesses. If your current customers aren’t generating a lot of content you can use, associate with influencers to stimulate highly authentic UGC.

Influencer content can construct depend and meet potential customers where they are. If your target spectators uses or shops on social media channels, influencer marketing campaigns are a great way to reach them. With features like TikTok Shop, Instagram Shopping, and YouTube Shopping, you can publish content that’s both entertaining and allows customers to shop directly on their preferred platform.

Example of shopper marketing

OSEA Malibu, a brand that offers seaweed-based skin worry products, was founded in 1996 but has gained a global presence in recent years thanks to influencer marketing campaigns. Today, in addition to its online Shopify store, the brand is sold at retailers like Ulta and Nordstrom and in thousands of spas worldwide.

OSEA Malibu’s CEO, Melissa Palmer, approached influencer marketing carefully with an eye on what would resonate with the brand’s target spectators. When brands started working with Instagram and TikTok influencers, OSEA decided to seek out content creators aligned with its brand values. Instead of partnerships with the expected beauty influencers, it worked with nutritionists and well-living influencers.

“We went for non-typical content creators,” Melissa explains on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast. “In 2016, you didn’t view a lot of nutritionists posting about what skin worry products they were using.” This schedule allowed OSEA to tap into niche communities like nurses and flight attendants and influence purchase decisions among health-conscious consumers.