Shopping behaviour, motivations and typologies

A Literature Review by Robert Pickstone in 2008

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 Shopping Behaviour

Since the mid 1950’s the quantity of studies into shopping behaviour has
accelerated greatly. Stone (1954) found that social characteristics affect
shopping typologies and Tauber (1972) found that shopping motives can be
social and personal, as well as functional. These two pieces of work are
viewed by academics as starting points for further developments into different
aspects of shopping behaviour. The remainder of this section briefly outlines
some areas of shopping behaviour and their relevance to shopping
motivations and typologies.

Store atmospherics and environments were studied by Kotler (1973),

Donovan (1982) and Belk (1993). Kotler (1973) argued that the tangible
product is only part of the total product. Other factors such as service,
advertising and pleasantries all help to form the atmosphere of the place that
a product is situated in, which in turn has an affect on a shoppers purchase
probability. Kotler (1973) concluded that more research should be undertaken
into how different atmospheric elements work so that that they do not continue
to be a neglected tool in the future.

Donovan (1982) found that consumers experience in-store environments

using two major emotional dimensions, which are arousal (arousing-sleepy)
and pleasantness (pleasant-unpleasant). The emotional reactions to a store
environment then have an affect on shopping related intentions. A high level
of arousal can also increase the amount of time spent in a store and
willingness to interact with sales staff. Bloemer (1998) then further
investigated the relationship between store image and loyalty behaviour.

Store atmospherics and environments have changed monumentally over the

past half century. Modern store managers are constantly looking at new ways
to improve a shopping experience, rather than purely focusing on the product
on the shelf. These changes may improve the motivation for a shopper to visit

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the store. The type of shoppers attracted to a store may also differ to the
types of shopper attracted to a product.

One of the earliest pieces of research into gift giving was carried out by Belk
(1979), who stated that the function of gift giving serves to allow a message to
be passed on from the giver to the receiver. This form of symbolic
communication acts as both the message and the channel, therefore reducing
the possibility of distortion. Due to a lack of flexibility in the specific meanings
that can be conveyed by a gift, as well as different encoding and de-coding
perceptions, gift giving is not always an effective method of communicating
messages.

Sherry (1983) proposed a model that showed the process of gift-giving

behaviour. Although this model was hugely complex, it was intended to
stimulate further and more comprehensive research around the area. Demoss
(1990) developed the concept further by exploring self-gifts. Findings showed
that self gifts are a form of personally symbolic self-communication through
special indulgences.

The motivation behind gift giving and the types of shoppers who purchase
special gifts may be influenced by competition and culture. Shoppers that are
motivated to purchase gifts which are high quality or have specific features
may be interested in what competitors can offer too – which may impact on
store patronage. Cultural issues such as celebration of events and the
importance placed on gift giving can affect shopper typologies across different
markets.

The rest of this review will look into the development of shopping typologies
and motives, as an aspect of shopping behaviour. Typologies and motives are
heavily linked. For decades shopping behaviour studies have explored how
motives define a shopper type, and how a shopper type is defined by different
motivations.

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 Shopping typologies and motivations

A study by Stone (1954) into different social characteristics within a social

structure was one of the earliest key papers that led to the topic of shopping
behaviour being explored in greater depth. Stone’s (1954) study of Chicago
housewives in a social context was set in an urban shopping environment.
Findings showed four different types of shoppers: economic, prescriptive,
ethical and apathetic. Although the sample size and variance was limited, the
identification of different types of shoppers with different characteristics was
an important early step into the study of shopping behaviour. The Chicago
Tribune (1955) then carried out a similar study on female department store
shoppers using in depth interviews. The types of shoppers identified were
dependant, compulsive and individualistic, although the sample size was less
than half of Stone’s (1954) study.

Stephenson and Willett (1969) proposed a conceptual taxonomy on shoppers

based on actual patronage and shopping behaviour. The four types of
shoppers identified were store loyal shoppers, compulsive and recreational
shoppers, convenience shoppers, and price bargain conscious shoppers. The
consumer and environment for this study was very specific, being adult
buyers of apparel, shoes and toys.

A piece of work that supported Stone (1954) was conducted by Darden and
Reynolds (1971) on consumer shopping orientations in relation to product
usage. Using structured questionnaires with multi-item Likert format, a
different method to Stone (1954), shopping orientations of a similar nature
were found; economic, moralistic, personalising and apathetic.

The motives behind shopping behaviour were explored by Tauber (1972) in

his well known article ‘Why do people shop?’ Eleven motives for people
shopping were identified, with six being of a personal nature and five being of
a social nature. Personal motives were role playing, diversions, self-

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gratification, learning about new trends, physical activity and sensory
stimulation. Social motives were social experiences outside the home,
communication with others having a similar interest, peer group attraction,
status and authority and pleasure of bargaining. The method of study only
took account of a public in Los Angeles between the ages of 20-47. This is
recognised by Tauber (1972) when he states that future research should
measure the importance of these motives in different shopper segments and
also that that his findings are only hypothetical reasons for shopping that need
to be developed further. Never the less this was still one of the earliest
examples of shopping motives being studied and categorised.

The eleven motives described by Tauber (1972) were the starting point for a
study by Buttle (1984) into shopping motives. The motives hypothesised were
tested a decade later in a different continent, in the country of New Zealand,
to see if they were still significant. The method of testing was to hold in depth
interviews with twenty two females, and draw findings based on their
comments. Findings showed eight different motives for shopping which were
to kill time, exercise, reflection on temperament, information acquisition,
subordinate activity, social event, comparison shopping and special
occasions. All but three of Tauber's (1972) motives emerged at some point of
the interviews. Although it was an exploratory study the method used made
the findings difficult to conclusively link back to Tauber’s (1972) study.

Different lifestyles, communication needs and shopping orientations have an

effect on the type of shopper a person is (Moschis, 1976). After city centre
shoppers from Madison, Wisconsin were surveyed on their shopping
behaviour in relation to cosmetic products, results showed six different types
of shoppers: Store Loyal, Brand Loyal, Specials Shopper, Psychosocializing,
Name Conscious and Problem Solving. Recreational shoppers were a type of
shopper studied in more detail by Bellenger and Korgaonkar (1980). To gain
usable responses every fifth shopper was surveyed in mall and non-mall
areas within Atlanta, Georgia. Findings suggested that these types of
shoppers are influenced by store atmospherics and in-store merchandising. It

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was suggested that the retailer should attempt to use these tools creatively in
order to attract the recreational shopper to what they subconsciously want;
attractive décor and an exciting shopping experience. Two basic types of
shoppers were identified as recreational and economic. Interpretation of these
results is cautioned by the author’s use of a potentially unreliable single-item
measurement of the criterion variable, defined as the extent of shopping
enjoyment.

Broad confirmation of the hypotheses advanced by Tauber (1972) is

illustrated through the findings of Westbrook’s (1985) study which attempts to
isolate the various motivational dimensions underlying consumer shopping
activity. Seven dimensions of shopping behaviour are identified. Five
motivations which broadly support Tauber’s (1972) work are: negotiation to
obtain price concessions from the seller, optimisation of merchandise choice
in terms of matching shopper’s needs and desires, affiliation with reference
groups, exercise of power and authority in market place exchanges, and
sensory stimulation from the marketplace itself. Two extended motives
identified within the study are: anticipated utility of prospective purchases and
enactment of an economic shopping role. Although the response size was
large with 203 adults being surveyed in department stores in Arizona, all were
female. Although the methodology was strong and thorough, the fact that it is
a female based piece of research is likely to have had some effect on the
strength of the findings, which is not mentioned in the text.

Lesser and Hughes (1986) offered alternative shopper typologies with seven
basic typologies being identified: inactive, active, service, traditional,
dedicated fringe, price and transitional. These typologies were formed after a
psychographic segmentation study on seventeen communities in twelve
states of six geographic regions of America. Respondents were surveyed by
telephone. This method meant that responses were given a significant
amount of time after an actual shopping experience, so shopping emotions
amongst respondents may not be as strong as they may have been if
sampling was carried out at a shopping centre. This study is still one of the

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few that attempt to find consistency of typologies across marketplaces rather
than focusing on one demographic.

A study by Hallsworth (1991) into grocery store shoppers within the UK found
six central motivational dimensions: Enjoyment, Price, Small and Local,
Parking, Sociability and Quality. The research was carried out in Portsmouth
and was one of the few pieces of key research on shopping motivation to be
carried out in the UK.

Morschett (2001) found that shopping motives significantly affected a

consumer’s choice of store format, whist Gollwitzer (1990) found that
individuals are often motivated by goals and take several stages of actions to
achieve these goals, but often resort to previous behaviour to achieve the
same result.

Hibbert and Tagg (2001) explored further into motivation in relation to goal
achievement, by using a craft fair as the environment. The investigation was
into the link between motives that bring people to a store and satisfaction of
these motives in the course of shopping activities. Customers who achieved
their motivation of goal attainment viewed the experience as positive and
were more likely to return. The level of effort invested into the shopping
activity, the levels of engagement with the social and physical retail
environment, and the expenditure of money only moderated the relationship
between goal importance and attainment. It was noted that due to the fact that
the environment was a craft fair, and that there was some conjecture in the
interpretation of results, the study was limited.

Morschett (2005) argues that motivations influence the perception of retail

store attributes and attitudes towards retail stores. A study on over five
hundred grocery shoppers within Germany included a taxonomic analysis of
four central dimensions of shopping motives, which were then compared with
Westbrook and Black’s (1985) summary of shopper types. Two shopper types
were identified again: price orientated and quality orientated. The apathetic

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shopper type was not identified, whist the convenience orientated shopper
was broken down into two types; time pressed consumer and one-stop
shopper. This investigation supports the proposition by Hibbert and Tagg
(2001) that consumers differ in attitude towards a grocery store according to
their shopping motives.

Rajamma (2005) found that different shopping motivations can influence the
perception of service type and different shopping modes. In a study that also
explored the influence of motivation on internet shoppers, as well as brick and
mortar shoppers, services are more likely to be associated with online
shopping whist products are more likely to be associated with brick and
mortar shopping. The value of this study is that retailing mix strategies can be
tailored with both online and offline customers in mind, but the respondents
were only taken from two US zip codes, which limits the credibility of the
study, especially the online section.

An analysis of motives and online shopping behaviour resulted in Rohm and

Swaminathan (2004) suggesting that online grocery shoppers can also fall
into typologies. The four labels given were convenience shoppers, variety
seekers, balanced buyers and store-orientated shoppers. Convenience was
identified as a motivation for shopping online, which is similar to the findings
of Bellenger and Korgaonkar (1980) for motivations of traditional recreational
shoppers. It was suggested that further research into online shopper
motivations should take place because the consumers used in the study may
only be early adopters of the relatively new concept of online shopping.

Online shoppers may be motivated by more than just goal orientated extrinsic
factors. They may also be motivated by intrinsic factors such as playfulness
and entertainment (Shang, 2005). Web magazine readers and students were
both surveyed online and offline to test a model hypothesised by previous
research. Results indicated that some user’s responses were not reliable. It
was recommended that further research should explore the two types of

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motivations in more detail by using random sampling rather than targeted
sources.

Shang’s (2005) findings support the findings of Arnold and Reynold (2003).
Arnold and Reynold (2003) argued that entertainment can influence shopping
behaviour and motivations, as was discovered in their study of hedonic
shopping motivations. Using the increasing importance of entertainment within
retail strategies as a motivation for the research, shopping motivations such
as adventure, gratification, role, value, social and idea were cluster analysed
on adult consumers to reveal fiver shopper typologies: minimalists, gatherers,
providers, enthusiasts and traditionalists.

Implications for Marketing Practice and Further Research

At no point over the last fifty years of shopping behaviour research has it been
argued that shoppers are not motivated in some form. Marketing managers
should try to seek and understand the motivational factors that affect his or
her customer, as discussed in the wide range of studies into shopper
motivations and typologies. This should already be part of marketing practice
when carrying out market segmentation or adding further market research
towards the current set of customers.

Marketing managers should also find ways that allow their customers to
achieve their motivational aims, as mentioned in reasonably recent studies by
Hibbert and Tagg (2001) and Morschett (2005). This should already be being
implemented when the marketing mix of an organisation is being tailored.

Unless a series of studies focus on matching consumer environment and

demographic location to that of a specific store, then it is unlikely that a
marketing or store manager would use study evidence as anything other than
general guidance.

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Motivation and shopper typology theories have changed with time. This could
be because of an ever developing understanding due to the subject being
explored deeply. On the other hand this change may have occurred largely
because of uncontrollable changes within shopping habits and within culture.
Marketing managers should monitor online shopping behaviour research
closely to see if any findings apply to their market.

There are many different angles to shopping motivations and typologies that
can be further researched. Shoppers within specific countries, shoppers of
specific products and shoppers of specific social status can be explored in
greater depth. Attempts to broadly explain the area of shopping behaviour has
met limitations in the form of not being able to show representation across
large markets or large geographic areas. This problem is likely to continue,
and different studies will continue to have limitations of this nature, until
studies become significantly larger in terms of geographic locations of
respondents and variety of retail environments used.

With the internet shopping industry rapidly increasing there should be further
research into typologies and motivations for shoppers who use the internet,
and whether this type of shopping affects the behaviour patterns of the same
shoppers when the traditional brick and mortar method is used.

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 References

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