The 4 Types of Consumer Shopping Activities
By: Kimberly Grant
For some people, shopping is a way of life. We shop for everything: clothes, shoes, houses (Ahem, Zillow anyone?), and even our next date. The possibilities are endless. Add to that the advent of apps like Uber Eats and even Bumble, and we have become a society of choices. Not only do we have endless choices at our fingertips via our smartphones, but we have endless opportunities to research our choices.
There are four types of shopping activities:
- Acquisitional (specific, intended purchase)
- Epistemic (acquiring knowledge about products)
- Experiential (recreational)
- Impulsive (spontaneous and derived from diminished regard for consequences)
Birthday Retail Therapy
As a woman who has enjoyed retailed therapy most of her adult life and who owns an old house, I have participated in all four of these types of activities in the past month. I recently celebrated my birthday for an entire week as a lady who lunched and shopped. It was fabulous.
On the first day of awesome week, I roamed Dolphin Mall with a specific purchase (acquisitional) in mind: replacing my red heels. My old pair are still super cute, but missing heel tips. I searched store after store and shoe after shoe, acquiring knowledge of the perfect pair of red heels at a good deal. (Read: epistemic shopping for discounts.) After a few stores, I decided that I was not going to be fruitful in my search. So, I took myself to the movies then early dinner.
Mix of Knowledge & Impulse
The next day, I found myself in Ikea partaking in epistemic and experiential shopping. My old house needs a new kitchen and I’ve heard a lot of people say that Ikea would be a good place to get a deal. So, me and my phone (epistemic) walked the entire kitchen section of Ikea getting pictures of kitchen ideas and prices.
The next day, I decided to go full-on experiential and impulsive shopping with my activities. I browsed Aventura Mall. This is when my impulse-buying kicked in. I impulsive-bought items from Lush, Bath & Body Works, Macy’s, H&M, Express, and JC Penney. I even replaced my red heels. So excited was I about following my impulses that I took myself to lunch. It was my birthday week and I’ll spend if I want to!
Now, why does all of that matter?
Nothing More Than Feelings
Most consumers shop with their emotions; even when it’s from a knowledge perspective. In order to market to consumers, emotions must be taken into account. Consumers need to feel something toward a brand in order to partake in its products. Those red heels may have been a logical replacement for my old ones. But that was just my excuse for retail therapy and those red heels (from Calvin Klein!) made me feel good. Imagining my new kitchen courtesy of Ikea makes me feel good, too.
Tapping into consumer emotions is the first step to getting what you want as a marketer. Everyone wants to feel good and they want a good deal. When marketers can find that happy medium between good feelings and good deals, they become heroes of the brand. Girls may run the world, but emotions run consumers.
Feeling good about this article? You can read my last post here.
