Direct. Engaged. Ready

Engaging instore customers

Today, customers are almost invisible to a brand when shopping in store.

Understanding the motivation of a consumer can give brands confidence in their marketing activities and streamline their efforts for more effective solutions. But this information isn’t available when customers are shopping instore and that is still over 80% of all purchases, even higher for FMCG.

So how do you get access to this vital information? Information that can shift the needle for your brand. Below are some of the ways that help you engage with instore customers.

Reviews Matter

One of the most effective ways to understand how shoppers experience your products is through authentic customer reviews. Reviews provide valuable insights for both future shoppers and brands, helping consumers make informed purchasing decisions while giving brands meaningful feedback on product performance and customer satisfaction.

Without encouraging broad participation, review platforms can naturally attract feedback from shoppers who are particularly motivated to share their experiences, meaning they may not always reflect the experiences of the broader customer base. Encouraging more verified purchasers to share their genuine experiences helps create a more balanced and representative collection of reviews that better reflects the experiences of everyday shoppers.

Reviews have a significant impact on purchasing decisions. Studies have found that nearly 91% of consumers refer to reviews before making a purchase. Overall ratings, the relevance of reviews and review volume all contribute to shopper confidence, with larger collections of authentic reviews helping consumers better evaluate products and make informed choices.

Encouraging verified purchasers to leave reviews helps build a broader collection of authentic customer feedback and gives future shoppers greater confidence when making purchase decisions. Authentic reviews—whether positive, neutral or critical—provide valuable insights for shoppers and help brands better understand customer experiences and identify opportunities for continuous improvement. Maintaining transparency throughout the review process is essential to building long-term trust, while misleading or fake reviews can quickly undermine consumer confidence.

Review incentives are provided for participation in the review process and are not linked to the rating, sentiment or outcome of the review.

Loyalty Programs

In the early 2000s we saw an explosion of loyalty programs as a way to retain customers and strengthen relationships with brands. Today they continue to play an important role in encouraging repeat purchases and creating ongoing engagement with consumers.

A well-designed rewards program can provide genuine value for shoppers while creating an ongoing communication channel between brands and their customers. However, loyalty programs also present challenges. They can be costly to operate, and many brands compete alongside retailer-operated loyalty programs, making it difficult to build direct relationships with end consumers.

Simple, accessible loyalty experiences that provide meaningful value are often the most effective. For brands without their own loyalty ecosystem, partnering with existing loyalty and rewards platforms can provide a cost-effective way to engage shoppers, encourage repeat purchases and strengthen long-term customer relationships.

Purchasing 2nd Party Data

Retailers collect significant amounts of shopper data that can provide valuable insights into purchasing behaviour, category performance and customer trends. Access to this information can help brands better understand where to focus their marketing efforts and identify opportunities for growth.

However, purchasing retailer data can be expensive, and brands should carefully consider whether the scale and level of insight aligns with their business objectives. Understanding what information is needed—and how it will be used—is essential to maximising value from these investments.

Data privacy also remains a key consideration. As consumers become increasingly aware of how their information is collected and used, brands must ensure they operate responsibly, comply with relevant privacy regulations and maintain strong data governance practices to preserve consumer trust.

Embracing Technology

Ecommerce has transformed the way brands understand customer behaviour by providing rich insights into how consumers discover, evaluate and purchase products. Until recently, many of these insights have been limited to online shopping environments, leaving brands with less visibility into in-store purchasing behaviour.

Shping is a shopping companion app used by over 330,000 Australians that supports shoppers throughout their purchasing journey—from product discovery through to purchase and post-purchase engagement. The platform helps consumers access product information, verified reviews, pricing insights and rewards to support more informed shopping decisions.

For brands, Shping provides opportunities to better understand shopper behaviour through first-party data, collect authentic consumer-generated content, improve product knowledge and communicate directly with verified shoppers. By strengthening these direct relationships, brands can deliver relevant information and support consumers throughout their purchasing journey while gaining valuable insights to continuously improve their products and customer experience.