Looking at value into the future

In cities all around Tuscany over the past month, retailers everywhere have been closed for at least two weeks. In most cases three weeks. It’s the summer holidays and everyone heads to the beach.

The exception is the tourist section of Florence. With seven million visitors a year, that part of Florence is different. But for the rest of the retail sector, July was ‘sale’ time and August was (mostly) closed.

During the sales, figures like “50% off” have been commonplace. And 70%. And 80%. You can’t help wondering how far they will go. Yet, despite the discounts, sales have been poor.

As unhappy economic conditions persist throughout Italy, retail is suffering here. But, for some of us, it is difficult to feel sorry for retailers. Customer service is rock bottom. There are exceptions, of course, but the general standard is much worse than in Australia.

It seems so crazy to have a sign on the window screaming “70% off” and then ignore people when they walk in. Or just keep talking to a girlfriend on the phone. But that’s how it works around Tuscany.

In view of that, it is no surprise that turning to the internet to find the best deal is becoming ever more popular.

Research within the last few months by the global research consultancy, Penn, Schoen & Berland, identifies what the researchers call “recession shoppers” or “online value hunters”.

In the study, these types of consumers claimed that as economic situations worsened, they increasingly looked to the internet to find the best deals. Now, as the Italian economy seems to be in an ongoing downward spiral, online shoppers are focusing on value — in quality, price, convenience and time — making “value” the new core theme among online consumers.

The research uncovered these five interesting statistics:

> 72% of value hunters look for the best value regardless of brand;
> 51% of value hunters look for incentives when making online purchases;
> 63% of value hunters have purchased something online they wouldn’t have normally because of a special offer;
> 68% of online shoppers search for value in the form of coupons and special promotions; and
> 45% of value hunters purchase something online once a week or more.

What all this says for your business and your marketing is for you and your colleagues to work out.

No doubt you have already been building value into your offering. But one thing we can say for sure: the focus on value is not going away.

As well as giving attention to the short term, you may as well start thinking now about what you can do in the longer term to build more value into your product and/or service.

What you consider as “good value” today will almost certainly not excite buyers in the future. If you don’t start to think outside the square on this one, your competitors surely will.