Question

The consumer journey has changed and has become more complicated. Do you agree or disagree? Use your ‘recent purchase’ or ‘intent to purchase’ to define the new consumer journey and how you believe it has changed. What has changed? What makes it more complicated to understand from a marketer’s perspective? Highlight at least 3 ways in which the consumer journey has changed and how the marketer has to adapt to this new reality.

Answer 1

There is no denying fact that due to the recent technological advancements and Globalization there is a widespread change in the consumer's journey to purchase. It has made it more complicated for the buyers to understand the consumer's needs and suggest a product and also with different options/ variants available for the same product there is a lot of scope for easy switching between the products.

Recently, I intended to purchase a laptop and as a consumer, I wanted the best but I had n number of options to choose from online and offline. Today the scenario has changed we prefer online buying than offline buying due to the heavy discounts offered if the offline retailer is able to crack the price, he wins the deal. This reminded me of the scenario when we had no option to compare the prices online and we had to settle for the deal that the regular or traditional shopkeeper offered. Today, the consumer is the REAL King having an array of products to choose from.

the consumer journey has changed in the following ways:

1.) Before going to market, he first checks online compare the prices on different websites, checks the product offline and again go for the model that offers the best deal, unlike past scenario where we just had offline sellers.

2.) There are a large number of sellers offering better deals online. so it builds pressure on offline retailers to offer a competitive price which is little difficult for them looking at the cost of infrastructure they have to bear to maintain the store.

3.) Also, due to increased transparency with lot of information available the consumer has become more informed and can make a wise decision based on his judgement.

Thus, all these factors like online shopping, easy review system, more information has made it complicated for marketers to understand the consumer. So, they have to constantly revise their strategies to capture the market, conduct market surveys etc.