PBS Solutions Retail research PBS POS Etnography

PBS POS Etnography

How to best investigate the attractiveness of the interior of a supermarket or showroom? How to tell if customers find what they are looking for, and more so, do the architectonics of the store encourage customers to buy more? We will need a few to several qualified customers, a researcher-ethnographer, and, of course, a shop.

Customers do not make purchasing decisions in a vacuum, let alone locked up with a group of strangers in the focus room with a one-way mirror. Allowing them to provide feedback on the category, brand, concept and commercial networks at a time when just browsing the relevant department in the store, we place them in a context that allows for truly significant discoveries. A trading environment, in which shop-alongs are held, allows us to go much deeper than the focus group, raises issues, and promotes feedback from qualified customers, in the very place where buying decisions are made.

This situation is called a shop-along.  Assisted shopping with an in-depth interview, conducted by experienced moderators with competent consumers. The researcher/ethnographer accompanies the buyer during the entire purchasing process, allowing us to provide a deep understanding of in-store behaviours and attitudes. In other words, you see the store through the eyes of the customer. The behaviour of the purchaser is observed. How they move around the shop, through the aisles containing various product categories, past the promotional stands, locating  products, and how they choose them. This method provides a great advantage over traditional methods. In addition, observation of behaviour can be combined with an interview before, during and after the purchase.