Price has grown steadily as the primary driver of U.S. consumers' purchasing decisions, to 66% in 2012 from 60% in 2010; 83% of consumers believe their purchasing power has declined in past year: Parago survey

Cindy Allen

LEWISVILLE, Texas , June 5, 2012 (press release) – Parago, a global consumer engagement and incentives company, today unveiled its third annual shopper insights study. The research revealed that in spite of an improving economic landscape, most shoppers have grown more price sensitive in the last twelve months. Additionally, consumers are eager to work to find bargains; shopper price comparison research jumped up 35 percent in the last twelve months.

The shopper survey was established by Parago several years ago to generate consumer insights on deal and promotion seeking behavior. The 2012 research was conducted independently through online delivery and surveyed more than 1,000 consumers. Key findings include:

70 percent of shoppers surveyed have grown more sensitive to price in the past 12 months.
Price has steadily risen as the primary driver of consumers' purchasing decisions, from 60 percent in 2010 to 66 percent in 2012.
83 percent of shoppers believe their purchasing power has decreased or remained constant over the last year.
95 percent of consumers shop for price over brand or look for sales, deals or rebates prior to shopping at least some of the time. In contrast, last year only 59 percent of consumers said they sometimes or always researched prices prior to shopping.
Rebates have staying power. 95 percent of consumers are interested in products that come with rebates and 80 percent of consumers actively seek out rebates.
Mobile shopping applications are not yet widely used. 73 percent of consumers never utilize mobile applications for price comparisons or to search for rebates.
Women have become more sensitive to price over the past 12 months than men. A slightly higher percentage of women research prices and deals prior to shopping.

"Deals, sales and promotions have become an expected part of the shopping process for consumers across all age groups, genders and incomes. This makes it even more imperative that manufacturers and retailers create an opportunistic promotional strategy to meet this consumer demand, while creating longer-term benefits for their organization. Businesses cannot avoid price comparison, but they can create promotional strategies that help identify targeted customers and establish strong and recurring touch points," said Juli Spottiswood, Parago President & CEO. "We are pleased to provide these annual shopper insights to our clients as well as the broader retailing and manufacturing markets. Because we engage with more than 50 million shoppers each year at Parago, it is imperative that we keep our finger on the pulse of the marketplace and monitor the changing tides of consumer perception and behavior."

A whitepaper examining the 2012 Parago shopper deal finding survey, as well as other shopping behavior data can be viewed here. The findings will additionally be presented by Parago in a free webinar on June 27. To register, click here.

Parago provides consumer incentive and customer acquisition rewards to one out of every two US households, for several Fortune 500 companies and for some of the largest brands in America.

About Parago

Parago is a leading provider of end-to-end engagement management programs for consumers, sales channels and employees, which deploy technology to drive better results. Parago provides services to many of the top companies around the globe. Parago has distinguished itself in the rewards-based incentives field for more than ten years by consistent reinvention of legacy approaches, introducing 27 industry firsts and receiving three patents. Parago issues more than $2 billion dollars in rewards every year, and offers the most all-inclusive approach to turn-key consumer, channel and employee management worldwide. For more information visit www.parago.com, the Parago blog or Twitter.

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