Shadow shopping and midnight confessionals
He also explained how new techniques such as ‘shadow shopping’ (following consumers as they shop at a respectful distance – rather than doing a ‘shop-a-long’), asking consumers to record their thoughts, feelings and observations during the day for a ‘midnight confessional,’ and asking them to comment on sentiment statements rather than asking direct questions, can yield more meaningful insights.
Finally, he said, few people realize that of the 55,000 SKUS to which shoppers are typically exposed in the grocery environment, the average person buys just 260 of them a year.