Accompanied Shops in Blackpool, Lancashire and the UK
The insights from observing your customer shopping
What it is
Accompanied shops are qualitative interviews that partly or wholly take place while the participants are engaging in their shopping activity, involving a degree of passive observation as well as more direct interviewing.
When to use it
This method allows relevant aspects of the respondent’s experience and the processes by which choices are made to be explored. It is particularly useful in bringing to light aspects of behaviour that the respondent may not be aware of, or may not be able to verbalise.
The Benefits
Accompanied shops allow the interviewee (shopper) to behave naturally in an environment. This allows us to observe their actions, the order in which they happen and what attracts them in a particular environment, giving you a valuable insight of their behaviour.
A Success Story
Flair Rugs (retail)
Flair Rugs sells to a major retailer in the UK. And they wanted to understand how the consumers behaved when buying their rugs. They wanted to know how they went on about choosing a rug, selecting the stores they went to and if they used the Internet in their purchasing process. Happy conducted a number of accompanied shops with a number of people that genuinely wanted to purchase a rug. It all started with some interviews, so we could establish their thoughts, how they made their decisions and when. Happy then followed the participants to the shops they wished to visit, to observe their buying behaviour and identify patterns. Using a mixture of direct interview and subtle questioning whilst in the shops, Happy gathered valuable consumer insights for Flair Rugs. Based on these results, POS was modified, marketing materials changed focus and a whole new side of their target consumers was discovered which, on a larger scale, benefited the company strategy.
