Shopper Trends

How America Shops® in a Crisis, Yet Again: 2025

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Blog banner featuring hand-drawn side profiles of people with question marks or scribbles in their heads and a magenta background with the word "chaos" repeated
In 2025, just as in 2024, 2020 and 2008, consumers are undergoing major financial uncertainty. WSL Strategic Retail has studied the implications of such crises on American shoppers over the years, so we went back into our How America Shops® data archives to previous “crises” studies to see how those times can instruct brands and ... Read more

Who’s Winning the ‘Digital Titans’ Battle: A WSL Deep-Dive

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Blog banner featuring halftone hand with magnifying glass over a laptop screen. Amazon, Target, and Walmart+ deliveries are floating out of the screen. The top right corner has another halftone hand with dollar bills dropping out of it.
WSL Strategic Retail recently polled shoppers to learn how they use the retail powerhouses Walmart, Amazon and Target online sites. The “connected consumer” results produced several surprising behaviors that suggest the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for the industry at large. We predict what’s next. Face it, Having an Omni Presence Doesn’t Make You Special In ... Read more

Unpacking the Nuances and Needs of the ‘New Value’ Shopper

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Blog banner featuring Walmart+, Temu, ThredUp, Facebook Marketplace, Chewy
Amid post-pandemic shifts in how consumers buy goods, stubbornly high prices and a squad of ankle-biting retail competitors, WSL Strategic Retail has been researching how today’s shoppers think about “value.” Specifically, how their definition of value guides what they spend their money on – and won’t – as well as where they will spend it. ... Read more

How Brands Can Achieve Shopper Loyalty: It’s All About Caring

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Blog banner featuring middle aged woman comparing food products from grocery shelf, words Trust? and Caring? overlaid behind her
The food and beverage industry, all CPG for that matter, faces trust issues in 2025, and it presents competitive risks for national brands. WSL shopper surveys show that most consumers feel manufacturers care less about quality now than they used to. Shrinkflation and higher prices add to trust issues. Here’s how we can help. Big-Brand ... Read more

Drive Retail Sales with TLC (Trust, Loyalty and Caring)

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Happiness hurdles blog banner featuring in-store pickup, family leaving store, and young man at self-checkout
It’s a perennial problem that’s poised to get worse: What makes shoppers happy, and why aren’t retailers able to offer it? WSL is getting to the bottom of the challenge by talking to retailers and gathering shopper insights to understand how they can regain their entrepreneurial spirit. Retailers and Brands, What’s Keeping You From Caring? ... Read more

‘Invisible’ Channels Eroding Retail Categories

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Main blog banner featuring TikTok Shop, marijuana dispensary, and Instagram Shop
Under-the-radar retail channels such as TikTok, Instagram and marijuana dispensaries are eating up market share in the health and wellness category, our preliminary How America Shops® research suggests. If retailers and brands don’t respond to this threat soon, they’ll suffer the side effects. But we see opportunity. Invisible Channels are Rerouting Established Retail Paths From ... Read more

4 Households, 9 Channels: The ‘New’ Population Shopping Path

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Main blog banner featuring single person, multi-generational household, hispanic family, and older couple
Today’s average household is leaning toward a new population of Hispanics, Boomers, multigenerational dwellers and singles. What retail channels do these demographic segments prefer to shop, and which retail brands? We dug into our 2024 How America Shops® population survey to find out. Are You Merchandising for These New Consumer Households? Forget about the “nuclear” ... Read more

13 Pet Consumer Insights That Will Surprise You!

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13 Pet Consumer Insights blog main banner
Pet parents are valuable shoppers in more ways than brands and retailers might realize. Our proprietary research into pet parent purchase behaviors reveals that their values as shoppers extend well beyond just the pet category. How Well Do You Really Know Your Pet Shoppers? Pet brands and retailers might know that 82 million U.S. pet-owning ... Read more

Millions of Shoppers Take Diet Drugs. What’s In Their Shopping Carts?

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GLP-1 Nutrition blog main banner featuring pharmacist, medications, and people using weight loss apps
By 2030, an estimated 15 million people are expected to be using GLP-1 drugs for weight loss. We wanted to know: What opportunities does this present for food retailers and brands? If people on weight-loss programs buy less food, how do they compensate for nutrition? We’re asking users of weight-loss programs how changes in diet ... Read more

If You Can’t Make It Cheaper, Then How About Easier?

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Blog banner featuring woman getting employee assistance at self checkout
More than eight in 10 shoppers prioritize price over convenience when choosing where to shop, our How America Shops® research shows. So how do they choose where to shop when prices are high everywhere? Ease could provide that competitive advantage, but shoppers tell us retailers have to get better at it. When All Prices Are ... Read more
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