---
title: "Key Factors Influencing Consumers' In-Store Purchases"
description: "As offline foot traffic continues to decline, it is crucial for companies to maintain their offline channels through meticulous management. This article, part of the Key Account (KA) Management series by New Distribution and former Coca-Cola China executive Cao Yang, explains how consumer behavior drives the practices of both retailers and manufacturers, and how understanding these factors can help attract consumers and drive sales."
author: "曹扬"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2022-02-12"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/key-factors-influencing-consumers-in-store-purchases-743d95cf/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/key-factors-influencing-consumers-in-store-purchases-743d95cf.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/KdgpPx9KAL7cO7ivGGoVhw"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E6%B6%88%E8%B4%B9%E8%80%85%E5%9C%A8%E5%BA%97%E5%86%85%E8%B4%AD%E4%B9%B0%E7%9A%84%E5%85%B3%E9%94%AE%E5%BD%B1%E5%93%8D%E5%9B%A0%E7%B4%A0-743d95cf.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/key-factors-influencing-consumers-in-store-purchases-743d95cf/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# Key Factors Influencing Consumers' In-Store Purchases

> As offline foot traffic continues to decline, it is crucial for companies to maintain their offline channels through meticulous management. This article, part of the Key Account (KA) Management series by New Distribution and former Coca-Cola China executive Cao Yang, explains how consumer behavior drives the practices of both retailers and manufacturers, and how understanding these factors can help attract consumers and drive sales.

**Editor's Note:** The continuous decline in offline foot traffic is an indisputable fact. However, this does not mean that offline channels are no longer important, or that attention and investment can be reduced. Compared to embracing the endless stream of new retail formats, holding the basic position of offline channels is more critical in the current volatile market environment. How to hold it? Only through meticulous cultivation and professional management to increase volume and efficiency.

To this end, **New Distribution, in collaboration with Mr. Cao Yang, former General Manager of the Key Account Management Group Channel at Coca-Cola China, has launched the "Key Account (KA) Management Practice" series, hoping to provide frontline channel managers with a complete methodology for managing offline key accounts in a "chaotic market."** This series consists of about 20 issues in total, and this is the fifth issue, as follows.

What do the key factors influencing consumers' in-store purchases mean for companies and customers?

This article will overturn your understanding, including two aspects:

**1. Consumer behavior determines many practices of professional retailers' purchasing departments and store operations.** For example, did you know that the setting of the acceptance period is to ensure consumers buy fresher products? Penalties for delayed delivery are also for the sake of consumers.

**2. Consumer behavior also determines corporate practices.**

Many practices in the key account management system are designed to attract consumers to buy more goods, which is about influencing consumer behavior. In the business planning and execution carried out by companies, many operations are combined with the professional operations of retailers, and their purpose also stems from consumer behavior.

Ultimately, the actions of companies and retailers converge on one focus: to meet consumer needs and attract consumers to buy.

To this end, companies and retailers break down the actions that attract consumers to buy into daily work, creating a series of processes, systems, and KPIs.

******The purpose of the Key Account Management System is to attract consumers to buy******

**The KA management system has three major characteristics**

The KA management system starts from the consumer, combines the retailer's operational requirements and the company's operational requirements, and has three major characteristics: systematic, professional, and complex.

**Systematic:** Companies and retailers integrate all departments into the system that serves consumers. Taking the company's key account management system as an example, it includes product supply, plan management, execution management, expense management, and organizational development.

The management of people, finances, and materials, the implementation of plans and executions, and win-win cooperation with retailers fully reflect the systematic nature.

**Professional:** Reflected in the targeted and effective attraction of consumers to buy. The factors influencing consumer purchases are objective. Configuring related operations can make consumers buy and achieve performance goals.

Professionalism is also reflected in practicality and universal applicability, as well as the scientific and reasonable nature of planning and execution.

**Complex:** Because companies and retailers are two independent systems. Two independent systems must serve a common goal: the consumer.

Connecting two independent systems will improve efficiency, which requires technology and digitalization. However, in reality, due to insufficient automation and digitalization, operational processes are extended or increased, bringing complexity.

From the company's perspective, the processes designed by the company are for 80% of customers, not for professional retailers like modern customers. The service processes with customers are derived and added on the basis of the company's existing processes. Because manual operations account for a high proportion, complexity arises.

Why operate according to the key account management system?

Complexity is relative. Compared with the simple and elementary operations of the team, it is relatively complex.

We know that the ability of the sales team is a process from elementary to professional, from scattered to unified, from personalized to standardized.

Then let's look at how the KA team operates. How does the account manager operate?

Without standard processes and operational requirements, account managers will follow personal habits, do things as quickly and conveniently as possible. Most people will not put in extra patience, energy, and time to do more things, thinking it is unnecessary.

For example, in the store visit process, it is required to walk in the direction of the main customer flow after entering the store, to the company's shelves and floor displays, so that you can observe from the consumer's perspective whether the company's products are easy to find.

But in reality, every account manager will walk according to their own habits, not in the direction of the main customer flow, because following the rules would mean walking dozens of meters more. They will feel it is troublesome. I will also give an example about the main customer flow direction later.

For account managers, these contents are not what they know, like, or are good at. They feel these professional operations are boring, plain, detailed, and trivial. If they do this, they will feel uncomfortable. This is a normal state.

It's like learning to drive. We know that the driving actions formulated by driving schools have many rules. If you have the conditions to drive and learn to drive by yourself first, then go to the driving school to learn and take the exam, you will definitely feel very uncomfortable with the whole set of driving procedures, feeling that many operations are unnecessary, cumbersome, and troublesome.

A person who has not been exposed to the key account management system will also feel that the operations are cumbersome and troublesome.

Under what circumstances will an account manager follow the formal operations?

Company requirements, what your boss asks you to do. Only by mastering the management system can you report to your boss. Therefore, the promotion of the key account management system has always been top-down, and enterprise managers play a key role.

As the promoting managers and executing account managers, it is necessary to be clear that behind the key account management system there is a very important factor: the key factors influencing consumer purchases, commonly speaking, how to attract consumers to buy.

In this issue, we focus on the key factors influencing consumers' in-store purchases. Understanding consumer behavior has two purposes: **one is to clarify the relationship among consumers, companies, and customers; the second is to understand the relationship between key influencing factors and market plans and store execution.**

Understanding the key factors influencing consumer purchases means understanding many practices of the key account management system.

#### **Companies do not truly understand**
#### **Some practices in stores are for consumers**

Companies produce products to sell to consumers, and customers also sell goods to consumers. Therefore, the common goal of companies and retailers is consumers. Both sides are friends, not enemies.

If some professional practices of retailers are simply classified as overbearing clauses, it is because the account manager did not convey the correct information to the company, or the information was "processed" in internal communication. Enterprise managers need to have a clear understanding of this!

Below I share two stories:

** _Story 1_** _: Products were rejected by the customer because the shelf life exceeded the acceptance period_ _
__At the business analysis meeting, the boss found that distribution costs had risen recently and asked why. The supply chain director analyzed: from the channel perspective, freight for distributors, grocery stores, and other channels was flat, but in the modern trade channel, freight had increased._ _
__He believed that both wholesalers and supermarkets were given products with a 9-month production date, and delivery was 3 months from the product date. Other customers could accept the goods, so why did supermarkets reject them? It was the peak season, and transportation capacity was tight. Delivery vehicles were arranged to deliver to stores first every day, but the customer still rejected the goods, saying our product date had exceeded the acceptance period._ _
__The boss scolded the sales director: How do you manage customers? Is there a problem with customer relationships? Can't you handle such a small matter?_ _
__After the meeting, the sales director personally investigated and found that the store did have products with shelf life exceeding the acceptance period, but there were multiple reasons for the rise in freight. It was clear that the supply chain director did not fully analyze the reasons; otherwise, the supply chain director would have been scolded. This made him "dodge a bullet" at the meeting..._

On the other hand, why do stores still stipulate strict acceptance periods when the products are clearly within the shelf life?

Different customers have different requirements for production dates. Modern trade customers have stricter requirements for production dates.

A more complete analysis has the following 4 points:

1) First, in the contract signed between the company and the customer, the customer has such a stipulation:

For goods with a shelf life, when Party B delivers the goods to Party A's store or the distribution center entrusted by Party A, the time from the delivery date to the expiration date of the shelf life shall not be less than two-thirds of the total shelf life...

The customer's acceptance period means that if the product's shelf life is 9 months, the customer's receipt date cannot exceed 3 months after the production date. If the production date exceeds 3 months, the store refuses to accept the goods. In the process of reviewing various contracts, the boss and sales director only paid attention to the deduction points and price when reviewing contracts, not the acceptance period clause.

2) Why do stores stipulate an acceptance period?

The purpose of the store's acceptance period is to make the product dates seen by consumers very fresh, leaving an impression on consumers: our goods are very fresh. When consumers decide which store to shop at, product freshness becomes a consideration.

Some supermarkets advertise that they don't sell overnight meat, which is the same principle.

Through this case, you can appreciate that retailers try to influence consumer purchase decisions through product freshness!**

****Please note that there are many factors influencing consumer purchases, and there are many corresponding operations. Retailers can only reflect obvious results in performance by doing every detail well. The acceptance period is one of these details. I will repeatedly emphasize this importance.****

3) Companies also hope that when consumers receive products, the products have the freshest date. This is consistent with the store's goal.

To this end, companies continuously improve and enhance a series of links and processes, such as improving the accuracy of sales forecasts, improving production efficiency, and strengthening warehouse shelf life management.

As we mentioned earlier, companies sell products to consumers through customer stores. When product shelf life management extends to the customer side, the customer checks product freshness and in turn makes demands on the company. How does this become an adversarial state?

Doesn't this require enterprise managers to think deeply?

4) From the company's perspective, the difficulty of the acceptance period lies in how to manage the shelf life of small-variety products. From the product line perspective, companies not only have internet-famous or best-selling products, but also small-variety and small-flavor products.

These products have a small consumer audience, so their sales share is small, and each production run is small. They have high requirements for inventory, order management, store execution, and promotion planning.

How to improve the freshness of these products requires continuous refined management by the company.

There is also a point to consider: in order to achieve goals as soon as possible, account managers always "focus on" products with large sales share and low gross profit, and in the end "only focus on" products with large sales volume. This is a common phenomenon.

In the key account management system, there are related operational requirements to reduce or avoid this phenomenon.

** _Story 2_** _: The regional manager did not understand why the store fined him._ _
__A regional manager came to me to complain about a store of a national chain. In the prefecture-level city he was responsible for, there was a store that recently received a fine because the delivery was not made on the date required by the order, 2 days later than the customer's required date._ _
__The store wanted to fine the regional manager. He didn't understand and asked: Why should I be fined? Our company is so big, they don't give us any face!_

I explained:

1) The contract signed by both parties clearly stipulates that late delivery requires a fine. The company stamped and agreed. You don't know this; it's a problem of our internal communication.

2) The store estimates the order quantity based on inventory levels and daily sales progress. The store's warehouse is very small and cannot order a lot at once. If the goods are not delivered on time, our products will not be on the shelves, which is a loss for both you and the store's sales.

3) Consumers' loyalty to many FMCG products is not high. If they can't find our company's products, they will choose competitors' products at the same price. So if we don't want consumers to choose competing products, we must not let the shelves be empty! Deliver the goods on time according to the customer's reasonable requirements!

Finally, I told him that the company was about to launch a project to improve the order fulfillment rate, which was to solve the problem he was facing.

In these two stories, one talks about the store stipulating an acceptance period so that consumers can buy fresher products, and the other talks about preventing store stockouts so that consumers can buy the company's products at any time, requiring on-time delivery.

In the product supply module of the key account management system, relevant professional operations are given for the acceptance period and on-time delivery issues. I will introduce them in subsequent articles.

**You will find that the key account management system extends product supply, planning, and execution content from the enterprise side to the customer side, matching enterprise processes with customer processes, and working with customers to meet consumer needs. This is a very distinctive feature!**

Whether it is the customer or the company doing the work to attract consumers, all these tasks are reflected in many details. Without working hard on every detail, there will be no sustainable growth in performance!

Next, I will introduce how stores operate to attract consumers to buy.

### **Key Factors Influencing Consumers' In-Store Purchases**

**I. Consumer Decision Content**

**1. Theoretically, consumer decisions include six aspects:**

**why (why buy, identify needs and dominant consumption motives)**
**what (what brand, what category, what subcategory)**
**how many (how much, what frequency)**
**when (when to buy)**
**where (where to buy)**
**how (how to buy, including how to get there, how to pay)**

The completeness and systematicity of the above theory are unquestionable, but when you understand these theories and add multiple variables, when you return to actual operation, you are still confused.

In practice, the factors influencing consumer decisions focus on influence, that is, how you can influence consumer decisions.

I will focus on the actual operation aspects.

**2. The purpose of influencing consumer decisions**

Based on years of practical exploration, the purpose of influencing consumers is to make consumers:

  * Attract more buyers: previously 3000 people shopped, now 5000.
  * Purchase more frequently: previously once every two weeks, now twice a week.
  * Spend more per purchase: previously 50 yuan per visit, now 100 yuan.

Accumulating these three is the store's sales volume, and also the company's sales volume.

**II. Factors Influencing Consumer Purchases in Modern Trade Stores**

**1. Category and product:** Attract specific consumers through specific category products.

a) Some consumers specifically want a certain category of goods, such as butter. Many years ago, a Carrefour store department head said he initially didn't understand why his store was required to sell butter, because the purchasing power of residents around the store was relatively poor. Later he understood that some customers entered the store to find butter and then bought other items. So butter attracted these customers with strong purchasing power and increased the average transaction value.

b) Imported goods: Similarly, imported goods attract customers with strong purchasing power to enter the store. Imported goods have high gross margins, and consumers generally have high awareness of foreign goods.

c) Internet-famous products: Because they sell well online, consumers see introductions on Douyin and are prompted to try them.

d) Small-variety products that cannot be ignored: Although they are niche products, they have a fixed consumer group that buys them.

So having a complete range of products, many essential items, accumulates into a river of sales through drops of water.

**2. Brand, quality, production date:** Famous brands, excellent quality, and fresh production dates are all factors that prompt consumers to buy. Among products of the same price and function, consumers tend to choose big brands, high cost-performance products, and products with fresher production dates.

The acceptance period operation mentioned above is about influencing consumers through product freshness!

**3. Price and promotion:** The more favorable the price, the easier it is to attract consumers to buy. Promotion is a very important reason for consumers to buy. Some stores advertise "everyday low prices" or "worry-free prices" to attract consumers.

Because price promotions have an immediate impact on sales, some account managers and purchasing managers only focus on low prices, ignoring other factors that influence consumers. This phenomenon is very common.

**4. Consumers can easily obtain products:**

1) Products on shelves: Consumers have low loyalty to many categories. If consumers cannot find the products they need, they may switch to other products or other stores. From this perspective, stockouts are unacceptable to both customers and companies.

In Story 2, enterprise managers should take the order fulfillment rate as a key indicator for assessing various departments, and improve processes to connect with the customer side. This is a new idea for improving management capabilities.

2) Make products easy for consumers to discover and find. After entering the store, consumers can find large categories like snacks within 30 meters, subcategories like drinking water within 10 meters, and within 2 meters can find the brand and promotional information for water.

3) Consumers can easily pick up products: When consumers find the product they want and walk to the shelf, what position is more convenient for consumers to pick up?

From the shelf height perspective, the position between the shoulder and hip of a normal person is suitable for most consumers to pick up. Retailers will place best-selling or high-margin products in this position.

### **The Relationship between Purchase Decision Factors and**
### **the Key Account Management System**

In the key account management system, we apply the various factors that influence consumer purchases to three modules: product supply, plan management, and execution management.

The two stories at the beginning about the acceptance period and on-time delivery belong to the product supply category. We will introduce more application techniques in subsequent articles.

Next, we will tell another story to reflect the application of purchase factors in the key account management system.

We talk about factors influencing consumer purchases; from another perspective, it is how to attract consumers to buy. From the company's perspective, it is how to attract consumers to buy through planning and execution.

Here I introduce a very important concept in actual operation: the main customer flow direction.

This is a schematic diagram of the store layout. From the diagram, you can see that the store has laid out different categories. Please note the entrance and exit.

**What is the main customer flow direction?**

Suppose 5000 people enter the store to shop. If you use several high-speed cameras to capture people's walking trajectories and then fast-forward them, from the entrance to the exit, you will find that there must be several routes with the most people walking. As shown in the figure below:

First, understand the main customer flow direction, then we start the story.

** _Story 3_** _: Account manager Xiao Wang received a notice that the company's biggest boss would visit the market, and one of the stores was a hypermarket that Xiao Wang was responsible for._ _
__Xiao Wang had been preparing for a week. He carefully checked the shelf facing, price, promotional information, and display positions such as end caps according to company requirements. He also replenished the out-of-stock small varieties and checked the shelf life of all products._ _
__He also carefully made a store route map and would lead the boss to visit the store according to the following diagram:_
 _Xiao Wang's performance was good, and his store execution was also well done. This time he hoped to show off in front of the big boss._ _
__Xiao Wang welcomed the boss at the store entrance. When the boss arrived at the door surrounded by a group of general managers and directors, the customer director introduced Xiao Wang to the boss._ _
__Today, the boss was in high spirits to visit the market. The boss started walking and asking about the store's business. Xiao Wang was very engaged, introducing to the boss while walking according to the route. The boss was very knowledgeable about KA and asked many indicators and execution details._ _
__When they reached the shelf, the boss stopped and asked: According to the main customer flow direction, I first see Product C with 3 facings, then Product B with 6 facings, and finally Product A with the most facings, 9. Xiao Wang, what's going on?_ _
__Xiao Wang was concentrating on answering the boss's questions when he suddenly realized he had led the wrong direction!_

This story tells us:

1) Along the main customer flow direction, the products that consumers see first should be the company's best-selling products, decreasing in order. The purpose is to make consumers pick up the products with the highest sales volume.

2) From the input-output ratio perspective, the money spent on display should generate the maximum sales.

3) The rule for setting facings is that products with higher sales get more facings, and in the direction of customer flow, they are first seen by consumers and easy to pick up.

4) These operations should be used as execution standards for requirements and checks.

5) The boss is very familiar with KA business, knows the store inspection standards, and is very good at visiting the market.

6) Xiao Wang, because he was focused on answering the boss's questions, led the wrong direction. He still needs experience.

This story reflects that starting from consumer behavior, the proportion of shelf facings is formulated, execution standards are set, and execution results are checked. You will find that the factors influencing consumer purchases have been integrated into the daily execution actions of account managers and have become the company's inspection standards. Only when consumers buy more products, thereby converting into sales, is it the most valuable thing for the company.

# **In Conclusion:**

Research how companies and retailers influence consumer purchases from multiple angles to attract consumers to buy, thereby achieving profitability.

The key account management system integrates operations that attract consumers to buy into daily execution. Due to its systematic, professional, and complex characteristics, it can ensure that companies obtain revenue and profits. It requires enterprise managers to drive the sales team and KA team to do daily work according to the key account management system.

**Managers and account managers need to understand that behind the key account management system, consumer behavior factors are driving it to achieve performance goals.**

Understanding the key factors influencing consumer purchases means understanding many practices of the key account management system. Managers and account managers can deeply appreciate the correctness and necessity of implementing the key account management system from the two levels of promotion and execution.

Due to space limitations, only three examples were given: the acceptance period, on-time delivery, and the main customer flow route. In future series articles, I will also mention more decisive factors influencing consumer purchases in the context of introducing the key account management system.

 _****__**-END-**_


---

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671