Before They Buy: What Retailers Still Don't Understand About the Modern Shopper

Checkout is the last step, but it’s rarely where the decision gets made. We dig into RTB House’s “Before They Buy” research and unpack what it reveals about the modern e-commerce customer journey: longer timelines, more touchpoints, and a lot more uncertainty than the classic “discover, click, purchase” funnel suggests. 

We talk through why shopping journeys often start with comparison rather than clear intent and what it means when most shoppers review multiple products even for smaller purchases. We also explore why so many buyers return to a website two or three times, jump between multiple retailers, and appear to “abandon” carts when they’re actually pausing to validate price, check competitors, or wait for a promotion. If you care about conversion rate optimization, digital marketing strategy, and building trust on product pages, these insights matter. 

Then we challenge the comfort of predictable promotional calendars. When consumers chase value on their own schedules and actively test new e-commerce sites, loyalty becomes conditional. We end with three practical implications: plan for longer research cycles, treat comparison shopping as the default behavior, and stay visible across the full decision journey because by the time someone clicks buy, most of the decision-making is already done. If this helped you rethink e-commerce strategy, subscribe, share the show, and leave a review so more people can find it.

Transcript

Comparison Starts The Shopping Journey

Why Shoppers Leave And Return

Gen Z Takes Longer To Decide

Price Checks And Waiting For Deals

When Promo Calendars Stop Working

Three Implications For Retailers

Before They Buy Final Takeaway

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Well hello everyone and welcome back to Scott's Thoughts. I'm Scott Benedict. Today I want to talk about an insight that comes from a recent report that I came across from RTB House, and it's entitled Before They Buy, which examines how modern e-commerce shoppers actually make purchasing decisions. And the core finding from this research, this report, is something that many retailers, I believe, still struggle to accept. The consumer journey is much longer, is more complex, and is far less predictable than traditional retail models assume. In other words, consumers don't just simply see something, decide they want it, and buy it. There's a lot more that happens before they buy. And one of the most interesting insights from this report is that shopping journeys typically start with comparison rather than intent. In other words, consumers don't begin their journey knowing exactly what it is that they want to purchase all the time. Instead, Vinny began by exploring options. According to the study, 78% of shoppers compare at least three products before making a purchase, even for relatively small purchases, small dollar purchases. For apparel purchases, between$30 and$100, nearly half of the shoppers in this report compare three to five options before choosing. And when the purchase becomes more expensive, the comparison set grows even larger. What this means is that retailers must recognize something very important. Consumers are forming their own preferences during the research phase of their path of purchase, not just at the moment that they purchase. If your product or your brand isn't visible during this early consideration stage, you may never even get an opportunity to make it into a shopper's final decision. Another insight from the report is that very few purchases happen on a single website or app visit. The research in the report shows that 54% of shoppers visit two or three times to a website before making a purchase, and 51% compare multiple websites before buying. This behavior explains why so many retailers struggle with cart abandonment. I know all about that from personal experience. A shopper doesn't always abandon the purchase you see. Sometimes they just pause the decision. Many shoppers will visit sites to check competitors, compare prices, or perhaps even wait to see if there's a promotion on that product that they're interested in. What's really interesting is that the report notes that younger shoppers are particularly deliberate. About half of Gen Z shoppers say they need two or more days to complete a purchase compared to roughly a quarter of the baby boomer generation. That means the purchase journey increasingly unfolds over time and not in a single shopping session. So what causes these shoppers to delay? Well, two primary factors stand out in this report. The first is price comparison. Nearly 49% of the shoppers cited in this report leave a site to look for a better price elsewhere. The second is promotional timing. About 40% of the shoppers surveyed in this report say they delay purchases because they are waiting to see if there'll be a promotion or if there'll be a discount of some sort. This behavior highlights something important about modern e-commerce. Consumers are not simply shopping for products, they're actually shopping for value, and they're willing to wait to see if they what they believe is a better offer, and that might appear. One of the most provocative insights in this bit of research is that traditional promotional calendars may no longer work the way that retailers expect. Retailers have long relied upon predictable promotional events like Black Friday or Cyber Monday or a seasonal end-of-season clearance. But the report suggests that today's consumers don't necessarily align their behavior around those moments. In fact, the research found that 15% of shoppers said that they received no discount at all during Black Friday purchases. Meanwhile, shoppers are actively exploring alternative retailers when they believe they can find a better value elsewhere. Past year, many consumers reported visiting two to four new e-commerce sites during their search for a given product or a given purchase. In other words, loyalty is increasingly conditional. Consumers will stay longer as long as they perceive that there is a value to them. So when you step back and look at all of these findings, in my view, three implications stand out. First, shopping journeys are becoming longer and more research-driven. That probably shouldn't shock us. Two, comparison shopping has become the default behavior, even for relatively small purchases. And third, value expectations are kind of evolving, which means rigid promotional calendars may no longer align with how a modern consumer actually shops. Retailers need to think less about single transactions and more about ongoing engagement throughout the decision journey. Because by the time a consumer clicks the buy button, most of the decision making has already happened. Final thought the title of this report here really, I think, says it perfectly. The most important part of modern retail isn't about what happens at the checkout per se, it's what happens before they buy. And retailers that understand the full consumer journey and stay visible throughout it will have significant advantage, it would appear, in the years ahead. That's what I've been thinking about. I'm skepping a dick.