Consumers Switch to Cheaper Retailers but Hesitant to Leave Grocers

Shoppers who are willing to leave their favorite retailers in search for better prices are hesitant to make the same kinds of changes when it comes to grocery shopping, PYMNTS Intelligence research reveals.

By the Numbers

According to a PYMNTS Intelligence survey, the majority (52%) of consumers have switched to merchants with lower prices to buy retail products. In contrast, less than half of shoppers (only 44%) have done the same for buying grocery products.

A Deeper Dive

Part of this may come down to the range of other factors that consumers consider when purchasing groceries, considering how frequently they go to grocery stores relative to other kinds of retailers. For instance, a 2022 PYMNTS Intelligence study of more than 2,000 U.S. consumers found that one in three grocery shoppers cite proximity as the most influential factor when selecting a merchant to purchase from.

Plus, grocers are doing everything in their power to secure consumers’ loyalty. Take, for instance, industry giant Kroger’s digital transformation.

“By delivering fresh products, enhancing our brand’s quality, and improving our digital experience, we grew loyal households in 2023, and our customers saved even more through our industry-leading personalization capabilities including loyalty discounts, fuel rewards, and personalized offers,” CEO Rodney McMullen told analysts on the company’s last earnings call. 

 “By increasing customers’ digital experience, we can more effectively deploy our data sciences and our AI to serve the right offers to customers at the right time,” he added.

Indeed, promotional offers are highly in demand in grocery. “Leveraging Item-Level Receipt Data: How Personalized Card-Linked Offers Drive Store Card Usage,” a PYMNTS Intelligence and Banyan collaboration, found that consumers are most interested in receiving personalized card-linked offers from grocery stores.

As such, it seems, grocers that meet this demand have the opportunity to secure consumers’ loyalty even in the face of ongoing inflationary pressures.