THE FIRST MOMENT OF TRUTH - Why timing of in-store marketing matters

Abstract: Retail managers of today face many and complex challenges on how and where to reach their customers. As of today, almost 70 % of all grocery shopping decisions are made in-store, which implies the store itself to be a fundamental area for communicating and influencing customers in course of making their shopping (Nordfält, 2012). This is acknowledged by Dhar, Huber and Khan (2007) who provide theoretical evidence of those customers who buy an initial product are more likely to also buy another following product. This is due to a shift from a deliberate to an implementation, goal-oriented focus. They conceptualize this as the Shopping Momentum effect. This is an explorative study that practically examines the concept of the Shopping Momentum effect in-store. This study focuses on a grocery store environment. It is a quantitative study, which uses the method of replication. The quantitative approach consists of customer receipt data, aggregated store sales data and a quantitative customer questionnaire. The findings from the experimental study suggest that the Shopping Momentum effect is realized also in an actual store environment. This is mainly visible through customers who are in Shopping Momentum buy more items, spend a higher total amount, buy more promotions and expect their shopping experience to be less difficult and more fun than customers that do not experience the effect. The findings also include consequent in-store marketing challenges for store managers who wish to evoke this effect. These challenges are: (1) Create a win-win situation, (2) Choose the right sales promotion, (3) Handling the effect in-store and (4) Extending the effect to other channels.