Examples of How Shoppers Buy

The simplest and therefore fastest process applies to highly repetitive purchases where there are no effective choices.

• All shoppers know that milk is at the back of the supermarket (search & find), there’s nothing new to understand, they won’t bother to go elsewhere to save a few pennies (decide) and they always buy the same type (e.g. 2% reduced fat).

  

For this kind of purchase, the 3-step process is trivial.

Most purchases involve at least one of the 3 steps, even if they’re very simple; e.g.:

• Searching & Finding. Which ecommerce site has the best price on the latest Harry Potter movie? 

• Understanding. What’s the difference between the store and name brand peanut butters? 

• Deciding & Buying. Buy from Amazon with free shipping, 2-day delivery at $12.99 or from Overstock at $7.99 plus $2.99 for UPS Ground?

The 3-step process becomes slow & circular as the difficultly of each step increases. Buying a refrigerator, for example, may involve multiple shopping stages each of which has the 3 steps of Search & Find > Understand > Decide & Buy.

• Stage I starts with learning about, understanding and deciding between the basic product types: Side-by-Side, French Door, Bottom Freezer, Top Freezer. 

• Stage II involves researching, understanding and deciding preferred product features such as color, finish, size, ice maker (yes or no), water dispenser (external, internal, or none), counter depth (yes or no), etc. It also involves developing or confirming brand preferences. 
• Stage III is where shoppers weigh the pros and cons of specific product choices to determine both the price/value tradeoff and which refrigerator best meets their overall needs.