IRI Insights: A New Turning Point in Consumer Shopping Patterns

Jul 11, 2007 2:04 PM

Is “one-stop-shopping” a thing of the past? Did you know that three-quarters of today’s consumers shopped in five or more channels this past year to meet their CPG needs? Multi-channel shopping is now the norm.

Consumer drive for convenience and value pricing, coupled with the industry’s increased points of access and aggressive price and promotion strategies, have fueled channel migration for the past decade. The result has been sizable consumer spending shifts across channels for several years running – with the dominant flow from grocery and traditional mass merchandisers to Supercenters.

These steady, long-term trends have reached a turning point. Channel migration is showing signs of slowing. Supercenters appear to be pulling share predominantly from traditional mass merchandiser stores, while grocers have successfully maintained share (see chart below).