ACNielsen I-Scan - to be initially introduced in Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand - is complementary to the company's Homescan study that monitors household grocery shopping. Dwight Watson, regional consumer panel service director, said: "The majority of products today are bar coded, which allows us to use scanning technology to accurately and effectively capture these impulse purchases."
Pilot studies have already been conducted in Hong Kong, focusing on snacks and beverages, and in Korea on beauty products. "Among all Asian countries, Hong Kong people ranked the highest in terms of the number of grocery-shopping trips every month and over 70 per cent go out on weekends," said ACNielsen Hong Kong consumer panel services senior manager, Eva Ng. "In addition to the hectic lifestyle forcing consumers to purchase on the run, this kind of out of home purchase is huge."
The Impulse study employs a panel of 830 people, aged between 12 and 54, whose purchases of food and beverage by product, location and store type are tracked with a pocket-sized device that can read and record bar codes. Even the time of purchase is noted. Ng said results from the pilot included the finding which contradicts the general perception that the biggest market for snacks are children. In reality, 95 per cent of people in the city regardless of age and gender purchase snacks, with ice cream, candies and chocolate being their favourite.
Office ladies, surprisingly, were found to be avid purchasers of snacks, in particular ice cream, candies and chewing gum, despite their concern about their weight. Ng added that people impulse-buy snacks and beverages more than 20 times per month, which is significantly above the average 16 trips made for home grocery shopping.
Convenience stores (22 per cent), bakery shops (21 per cent) and supermarket and drug stores (17 per cent) are the most visited locations. Beverages (50 per cent) were the most sought after product.
But Ng stressed: "We also see price cuts and coupons becoming common drivers for impulse purchasers."
In Korea, meanwhile, the tracking of how women, aged 15 to 39, bought cosmetics found they mainly made their purchases via the internet and from door-to-door salespeople. Other channels included discount stores and department stores. In addition, while local brands maintained a leading position in the Korean cosmetics market, international labels were perceived to be more trendy.