Editor’s note: Nathaniel Noertker is shopper outperformance team lead, Reckitt, Cincinnati.

Earlier this year I participated in a Q&A with Quirk’s and I was asked about how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we conduct research. While I covered the adjustment to our shopper learning plans, there is one additional impact we experienced within shopper insights I did not cover at that time. We encountered the need to start breaking down the internal silos between shopper and consumer. 

Our two insight groups were operating independently of one another with very little sharing or collaboration. Prior to COVID there were some challenges with this style of operating, but it wasn’t overly detrimental to the business. We each had our areas of focus, and we worked to provide the best insights to the organization within our sphere of responsibility. Like many other things, COVID changed our needs and challenged our thinking.

In its simplest form, the traditional operation of insights within the organization has been the consumer team covering research for things happening outside of the store and the shopper insights team covering happenings inside the store. This can result in high internal engagement for consumer insights as they focus mainly on brand. On the other hand, shopper insights has high external engagement, along with field teams capitalizing on a heavy focus within the category and general shopper behaviors. This works in a low digital engagement environment, but can cause major challenges with today’s enhanced digital shopping experiences. 

In this article I will share ways the shopper and consumer insights teams have been challenged by the more streamlined purchase decision process and online shopping, as well as the impact of social media.

COVID’s impact across the industry

The anecdote – holding relatively true – is that COVID has only accelerated existing trends. This is particularly true with digital shopping. The household penetration of online shopping accelerated by years in a matter of weeks as shoppers looked for ways to stay safe. However, as time progressed, we have witnessed the top reasons for shopping online switch from safety to convenience. Shoppers have realized the benefits of shopping online and getting orders via curbside or home delivery. With the elevated importance of convenience for online shopping, we will likely see this change in method of purchasing continue in the future. 

And the appeal to online hasn’t just been with younger shoppers. Older generations are also engaging more with the changing retail environment. In many cases, this is driving a much shorter purchase decision process and changing the way we think about the differences between the consumer and shopper across multiple generations. 

While COVID has accelerated the broader online shopping trend, there are other aspects of the digital shopping world changing the shape of shopper and consumer. Social media is making an impact, and this is particularly true among younger shoppers. My favorite example is watching how my college freshman daughter purchases certain types of items. In our house, we watch with interest at the amount of makeup that shows up at our door. What retailer did she purchase it from? Most of the time, none. Social media influencers via YouTube channels, TikTok and others are developing and selling their own lines of product. This is collapsing the traditional shopper/consumer decision purchasing journey, which in turn is forcing our consumer and insights teams to re-evaluate how we develop and field research studies. 

How do we move forward?

One example of a key study we have had to rethink is a traditional attitude and usage (A&U) study. The A&U was best suited for the consumer team as they worked with brand partners to determine needs and plan for future communications and innovation. However, A&U reports are becoming more important and informative for shopper teams as they try to understand what is driving purchasing decisions. Studies, like the A&U, are resulting in a greater need for collaboration between both consumer and shopper insights teams.

We haven’t solved all our historical separation issues yet, but we have benefited from dissolving some traditional silos over the last 12 months. How have we accomplished this so far? The biggest impact to removing the barriers between the teams has been communication. I realize this is a simple comment, but we weren’t prioritizing this connection before COVID. We went from quick 30-minute quarterly meetings to almost daily contact during the height of the pandemic. While we no longer need to meet daily, we have committed to maintaining a bi-weekly time for us to connect on key topics. This is leading to greater visibility and collaboration on larger business needs.

Another key area for coordination is in research study planning and design. It is critical for both consumer and shopper teams to have visibility into all research plans and can input key needs into each other’s studies. By including both consumer and shopper stakeholders in the study design process, we have been able to deliver actionable insights to both brand teams and retailers at the same time. One of the biggest examples of where it is critical to involve both groups is with segmentation. It is not uncommon for consumer teams to build a demand-centric consumer segmentation while shopper teams develop shopper behavior segmentation. While both are incredibly useful, the challenge comes when the two are done independently of each other. When we don’t collaborate, we end up with two different models of segmentation that either the brand teams or the field teams can’t use. If we partner in the study design and build one model we can ensure implementation of the findings across all key stakeholders.

While the pandemic has elevated the need to collapse the traditional silos between consumer and shopper, it is up to us to follow through and ensure we maintain this new way of working. If we do, the benefits can be enormous.