Devora Rogers Future of Retailing

FUTURE OF RETAILING

Future of Retailing

The key takeaway in Devora Rogers’ talk is that shopping is all about decision-making and not the people that go out shopping. Rogers’ (2013) suggests that shopping should not be viewed as the person who goes shopping. Rather, the author suggests that all the things that people engage in everyday could be viewed as shopping. However, in order to say yes to the said decisions, Rogers’ (2013) indicates that some inputs should be included when making such decisions. For instance, making a decision to purchase a product in the past mainly depended on gathering information about the said product from a CD ROM, family member, from the store or from a friend (Rogers’, 2013). Contrary to how shopping was conducted in the past, it is worthwhile noting that shopping is done differently nowadays. Roger’s (2013) suggests that people make their decisions to purchase a product by gathering some critical insights. For instance, this could be done by taking to other shoppers who are online, reading reviews, and inquiring from Face Book whereby a lot of information about products is gathered. Rogers’ (2013) argues that it is through the said sources of information that people are able to make decisions.

The talk on shopping is named “The Science of Shopping” owing to the fact that shopping was not viewed as a linear process. This is more so the case given that the decision to shop is often influenced by many sources from different persons and places. For this reason, Roger’s (2013) suggests that shopping could be viewed as a ‘neurone firing in the brain’. The author further suggests that it could be hard to advice brands and retailers on which sources to use in order to move their products. To be able to advice retailers and brands, Rogers’ (2013) suggests that it would be appropriate to study shoppers from different categories. The assessment aims to investigate the issues that make shoppers to say ‘yes’ and purchase a certain product. On average, shoppers use about 10 sources to research on a product before making a decision to purchase the said product. For this reason, it would be prudent to note that people spend a lot of time on research before making a decision. Essentially, this could take hours or even months. Rogers’ (2013) compares the number of searches that people do with the human DNA. This is more so the case given that by these searches, people tend to create a new ‘shopper DNA’. It is through the said DNA that marketers are influenced to make decisions.