Industrial Investigation Primary Research

So, I made it to blog post number 7, yay!  That means however, it’s almost the end of second year and almost the end of college – scary stuff.  For my last post, I thought I’d do a roundup of the findings from the rest of my primary research for my industrial investigation – if you read my last two previous posts you will have seen I gave an overview from my focus group findings, so I won’t go over all that again!

The rest of the findings for the primary research was undertaken by conducting a survey and two observations.  All research undertaken was to help achieve one of the objectives set out. 

Survey Findings

So, as part of the primary research, I created questions for a survey and put it online.  This survey helped fulfil the objective ‘the number of consumers buying in-store versus online’ that was set out in the original rationale.  This survey showed that where consumers preferred to shop was almost split halfway, as 53% said they preferred online shopping and 47% said they preferred shopping in-store.  They were then asked which method they used most often, and these results showed that 53% said that they used a mixture of both.  The findings from this whole survey suggested that even though consumers prefer to buy things online nowadays, there is still room for in-store shopping as both methods have positive and negatives to them.

Observation Findings

For the final part of the primary research, two observations were carried out in the form of a communications audit.  This was to achieve the objective ‘to find out how different industries use online platforms and social media to promote themselves’.  The observations were based on the online company Missguided to compare the number of posts on their Instagram page versus the number of their adverts seen on TV – to see how an online company makes use of the promotional mix.  As I suspected, Missguided made much more use of social media than they did with the likes of traditional media.  Their Instagram page – which was what was being recorded – had multiple posts per day, promoting their products and reposting pictures of their customers in their clothing.  Missguided’s TV advertising however, was much less frequent, and the only channels that they were seen advertising on was E4 and MTV.  This works well for them though with the little TV advertising they do as their viewer are mainly younger who fit to their target market demographic.  From these findings, it showed that Missguided – an online company – are more likely to promote themselves using online platforms such as social media.  Since doing this investigation, I have also seen that Missguided are now doing Snapchat advertising.  This is a fairly new way of advertising and allows Missguided to reach their target market.

Throughout this whole investigation, I found the research, and specifically the primary research, fun to undertake.  I enjoyed finding out what different people and age groups had to say about the way they like to shop and it was interesting to compare how an online company uses their promotional mix versus a traditional company uses theirs.

Do You Prefer to Shop In-store or Online? Part 2

If you read my last blog post, you will have seen that I looked into the findings from one of the focus groups I conducted as part of my industrial investigation.  This week, I will be doing the same but with the 25 and over age group that I asked.

For this focus group, there was six 25 and over participants who were asked their opinion about how they like to shop nowadays.  Unlike the 16-24-year-old age group, the 25+ age groups answers were much more split.  The group was quite split with their answers so it made for an interesting discussion to find out their views against the younger age group.  As before, the same questions were asked to compare the results to help with my industrial investigation.

The first question that was asked was to find out participants preferred method of shopping.  This question was very split as three said in-store, whilst the other three participants said online.  The main reasoning for preferring to shop in-store was due to the fact the three liked to try products on/out before they bought them to ensure they would actually like it.  For the three that preferred to buy things online, they had varying reasons as to why.  One participant said that there was a lot more choice to choose from and they get quite addicted to looking at clothes online.  Another said online shopping is more convenient for them as they don’t have much time to go shopping in-store often.  The third participant said they prefer it as there is usually good deals on – which encourages them to spend more.  They also agreed that they didn’t have much time to go in-store as often as they would like.

Participants were then asked what could persuade them to shop the other opposite way.  The answers here were, again, quite varied.  Two participants said they would be persuaded to shop in-store more often if shops were open longer.  The third participant who said they prefer to shop online said that they still shop in-store regularly but would be more likely to go if shop sales weren’t so messy and if staff weren’t so pushy to you in-store.  The three who were more in favour of shopping in-store said they would be persuaded if they could physically see what they’re buying, if delivery was quicker and if they knew clothing products would be the correct size for them.

Participants were then asked their thoughts on the biggest benefit and drawback of shopping in-store.  For the biggest benefit, all participants agreed that it was the fact you could actually see and try the products out/on before you bought them.  For their thoughts on the biggest drawback, three participants agreed that it was the fact they felt shops weren’t open long enough as they don’t have time to go shopping much.  Other drawbacks included the fact the shops were an issue to get to as the bus takes a long time to get into town, shopping takes a lot of time out of your day as you have to walk around the shops and the fact that shops tend to be busy a lot so it takes a lot of time to get around them.

As before, the group were then asked what they felt was the biggest benefit and drawback of shopping online.  Participants all agreed on the biggest benefit to online shopping was that it is available all the time so you can shop to when it suits your schedule.  Their thoughts about the biggest drawback were also fairly similar.  The answers here were that it takes a few days to arrive/return and the fact you can’t actually see/try what you’re buying.

The results from this focus group came as quite a surprise to me.  I thought that all or most of the participants would prefer to shop in-store, so I wasn’t expecting half of participants to prefer to shop online.  The data from both focus groups showed that most participants agreed on the benefits and drawbacks of both in-store and online shopping and I myself would agree with what they had to say.

I personally prefer to shop online as I find it easier and like the variety of products and shops that you can access online, but I do agree that sometimes it’s better to be able to see or try products before you buy them.

Do You Prefer to Shop In-store or Online?

In this week’s blog post, I’m going to be writing about something a little bit different than in my previous posts.  This week, I will be discussing the findings from one of my focus groups for my industrial investigation to give you a little insight into what I have found out. 

With the two focus groups that I held, I wanted to find out how people want to shop nowadays – is it in-store or online?  I took two different age groups – 16-24 year olds and 25+ – to find out their thoughts and opinions so I could compare to see if there was a difference between the age groups.  For this post, I will be focussing on the 16-24-year-old age group and what they had to say about how they prefer to shop. 

For this focus group, six 16-24 year olds were questioned to find out if they prefer to shop one specific way over another.  All the responses from each participant were fairly similar, and it was easy to see that they all agreed with one another in their answers.

When asked what their preferred method of shopping was, each participant agreed that they preferred shopping online to shopping in-store.  Their main reasons for preferring to shop this way was because it is convenient, there are more options and you can get it delivered straight to you.  I felt that these responses were expected from this age group as they have grown up around technology so it is something that they are used to and have always known.  They also said that what influenced them to shop this way the most was because it doesn’t involve a lot of effort and it is easy to do. 

Then when asked about what would persuade them to shop more the other way, their responses were more mixed but again, they all agree with what of them had to say.  One participant said they would shop this way if there were less queues when shopping, whilst another said if the staff weren’t so pushy towards you.  Other responses included if shops weren’t so far away from where they lived, if there were more sales and offers, if they had longer opening hours and if it wasn’t so expensive to catch the bus or for parking.

Participants were then asked to give their thoughts on the biggest benefit and biggest drawback to shopping in-store.  The main benefits here were that you could physically see and try on the products before you buy them – all participants agreed here saying that sometimes seeing the products is better before buying then.  The drawbacks here were similar to their answers in the previous question – as a whole they didn’t like to have to pay for travel, sales staff are often pushy, there is more variety online and shopping takes out quite a bit of your day.  Again, all the participants seemed to be in agreement with each other on their thoughts about the benefits and drawbacks of shopping in-store.

They were then asked what they felt the biggest benefit and biggest drawback to online shopping was.  The answers were fairly similar here again – online shopping is easier and convenient and there are more choices online to choose from.  The biggest drawbacks here were almost identical as participants didn’t like the fact you can’t see/try the products before you buy them and it takes a while to arrive/return the products.

Overall, the data gathered from this focus group seemed to show that these participants all think in a similar way about the way they shop.  It didn’t come as a surprise to me when they all agreed they prefer to shop online as I expected it from this age group. 

Leave a comment and let me know what your preferred method of shopping is – is it in-store or online and what factors influence you to shop this way?