Have you seen The Customer Experience Factbook?

In this 180+ page report, you'll find all the information and support you need to build a profitable, effective CX Improvement Program that spans every part of your business. You'll be able to implement and manage meaningful and profitable change, and grow your bottom line despite a slowing economy.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)

More consumers defecting to private labels

The proportion of consumers switching to private label goods has tripled since a similar survey in August 2008 when only 25% of shoppers said they had abandoned premium labels in favour of own-brand grocery items.

According to uSwitch, a signficant proportion of the observed increase could be attributed to supermarkets expanding their private label product ranges in a bid to stop consumers switching to cheaper grocery chains. For example, Waitrose now has an 'Essentials' own-label range, Tesco has a 'Discounter' range, and Sainsbury's has a 'Switch & Save' campaign which calculates own-brand savings for the customer.

Not only has this activity secured repeat visits from existing customers but it has also slowed the rapid growth of overseas competitors such as Aldi, Iceland and Lidl, according to recent TNS Worldpanel market share figures.

Overall, the study found that 90% of UK adults now use recession-busting shopping strategies when they do their weekly shopping. Money off vouchers have also reached the top of the shopping list with the number of frugal consumers regularly using them increasing sharply to 74% (compared to only 26% in 2008). Moreover, 20% now compare prices online before going to the supermarket (up from only 6% in 2008).

And when it comes to shopping online, 6.4 million consumers now claim to avoid the hustle and bustle of their local supermarket by doing their weekly food shopping online (three times the number that did so in 2008). In fact, this option has become so popular with British consumers that some industry commentators are predicting that the value of online food sales could reach 8 billion by 2011.

Recession-driven cut backs in consumer spending at the supermarket could, however, have some positive lifestyle implications for many shoppers as they revert to more wholesome and natural ways of doing things. Almost one-fifth of consumers have now taken to growing their own fruit and vegetables (more than twice as many as in 2008).

According to Rumina Hassam, a personal finance expert with uSwitch, "In the face of uncertain economic forecasts, continued volatility in the housing market, and increases in unemployment, many consumers are making cutbacks to their fundamental spending routines to beat the recession. But all these lessons in smarter spending as a result of the recession are likely to remain with consumers, even after the economy recovers."

Have you seen The Customer Experience Factbook?

In this 180+ page report, you'll find all the information and support you need to build a profitable, effective CX Improvement Program that spans every part of your business.

You'll be able to implement and manage meaningful and profitable change, and grow your bottom line despite a slowing economy. Grab this goldmine of easily adaptable and up-to-date strategies, walk-throughs, trends, technologies, research, suppliers and partners, plus all the supporting arguments you need to build a solid CX strategy.

While most marketers could list maybe a dozen key points for improving their brand's Customer Experience (CX), the researchers and writers at The Marketing Factbook have identified FORTY main 'CX Keys' which will help you drive your customers to new levels of delight, loyalty, advocacy and profitability.

The areas in which customers have direct contact with your organization are perhaps the most obvious places in which CX improvements can be made, and this report addresses all 24 of these 'Direct CX Keys', applicable to offline and online businesses alike.

At the same time there are many other areas that indirectly affect CX (such as the supply chain, policies and processes) in which every business can make simple but far-reaching improvements. This report guides you through the problems and solutions for all 16 of these 'Indirect CX Keys', many of which are often forgotten or under-played even in the best CX strategies.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)