Shoppers Embrace Quality Over Low Prices

• Shoppers Embrace Quality Over Low Prices

Shoppers now consider good quality and innovations over low price. They no longer compromise comfort for cheap items, writes TONIA ‘DIYAN.

In the past, the average shopper would go for products with low prices, but these days, good quality and innovations have become people’s main considerations. This trend, it appears, is attributable to convincing sales/promotions, well-stocked shelves and high-quality fresh products available. Therefore, to boost sales, as well as encourage shoppers, some retail shops launch attractive sales promos frequently.

Such promos, it was learnt, have worked for many shops over the years. According to retail experts: “Promotional offers are aimed at attracting more customers and enhancing sales. There are misconceptions that when discounts are offered by shops, such shops stock inferior products, that is why they sell at cheap rates just to do away with the so-called inferior products. It is not true.”

While factors relating to good quality, innovations and low prices are important determinants of where to shop and what to buy, retailers and manufacturers who offer good value, either through sales and promotions or via larger-economy packaging, stand to gain the most from hard-income-earning consumers in a tough economy such as Nigeria. That is why discount offers from some shops mean a lot to an average shopper.

Mr Todd Hale of Consumer & Shopper Insights, in a television interview, said: “For the economically challenged, low prices are a must, but convenience may trump low prices for some from discount retailers.

“For some shoppers, the value obtained from one-stop shopping can save them time and money. Therefore, manufacturers and retailers need to place a greater focus on shoppers’ benefits to achieve the differences that go beyond prices.”

Though price is a differentiator in any economy, store brand products, he said, must deliver a level of quality proportionate to their price points.

“Quality, at an affordable price, is what gets consumers to buy and repeat. If quality and value are lacking, then consumers will buy fewer store brands,” Hale said.

People no longer fancy cheap products; they prefer to buy products based on quality and the benefits such products have to offer. In the market today, there seems to be more new products than the old ones, especially for consumables such as canned foods which also come in sachet leaving the shopper with choices to make.

When reporters went round malls in Ikeja and Surulere, a large number of shoppers indicated their preference for quality and innovation over low price. Some others said they prefer innovation at low prices, and only a few of them said they prefer very low price not minding the value of the product.

Majority believe quality is not to be compromised; therefore while manufacturers are producing slightly low quality products, they should not forget to keep prices low as it is the least favoured option among consumers because raising prices is a strategy that consumers do not embrace. Consumers typically maintain reference prices for products based on prices they have seen or paid in the past.

A shopper, Mr Henry Nwanchukwu, said he prefers quality over low price.

“Low pricing could be deceptive; I am usually not deceived when I want to purchase an item. I make up my mind to go for quality so I can be sure of getting value for my money.”

Another shopper, Mr Okhiria Caleb, is of the view that good quality and innovation is better than low price if a person wants the best. “The life span of a quality product is longer than that of a cheap inferior product. You will only be buying what you need at once instead of buying the same thing twice because it is cheap,” he said.

Some people think the new products are either not trusted or they simply do not allow for patronage of the existing ones. May be because some people who will prefer to buy the new ones will want to explore them.

According to Mrs Kemi Badmus, a shop owner at Adeniran Ogunsanya Shopping Mall in Surulere, Lagos, bringing innovation into the market sometimes does not allow the sale of old products. “But if the new product is of a higher price than the already existing ones, then I am sure of selling my existing products. Therefore, innovations should be accompanied by low price, as it is generally known that low price is the driver of any shopper,” she said

Mrs Nsofor Chinwe prefers existing products. To her, existing products are better trusted.

She said: “I have come to trust existing products over the years. I can only be lured to buy newly introduced products if I can get a testimony from someone else about that product. Most times when I go shopping, I don’t check out new products, I simply pick the old names that I am used to.”

Some shoppers are of the view that new products should be discounted rather than sold at exorbitant prices so that people can be attracted to them.

A shopper, Mr. Stanley Omokaro, said discount offers should be attached to innovations so that shoppers can easily accept them when they are newly introduced into the market. “ It is only common with shoppers to want to buy new products at cheap rates. Some people would refuse to pay more or same amount as for an existing product for a newly introduced product,” Omokaro said.

Mr Odundayo Agboola is an economist. He prefers innovation to low price stating that the country’s poor economic condition is a major challenge to innovations. “My question is, will these innovations stay? Is our economy encouraging such? Modernism has been brought into production and now we get newly introduced good items. I believe that the newer a product, the better it is. Sometimes I get tired of the old product because some of them have reduced in quality. Therefore, I look forward to new products from time to time,” he said.