Dean Harris, Head of Co-op Media Network, writes for our monthly column about what a new behavioural study of more than 700 Co-op shoppers reveals about consumer decision-making; and why brands can’t afford to take the loyalty of shoppers for granted.
When does a shopper become brand loyal? The first thing to understand is that loyalty isn’t about always choosing the same brand in the same category every time. Brands often talk about ‘our customers’ or claim to be ‘their brand’, but shoppers don’t belong to brands, and they don’t get chosen simply because they were chosen last time.
Brands are chosen because, in the moment a decision is made, they stand out, both mentally and physically. They win the moment.
Shoppers are shared, especially in grocery
In grocery retail, shoppers are shared. In any typical four-week period, people shop with five or more grocery retailers. Behaviour also changes dramatically based on store format.
In convenience, shoppers arrive with fewer fixed plans, greater openness to persuasion, a higher willingness to experiment, and a stronger reliance on in-store influences to guide their decisions. The result is higher brand switching, more trial, and more unplanned spend.
This combination of openness upon arrival and reluctance to leave without a purchase creates the perfect conditions for brands to influence.
Loyalty exists – but it’s smaller than we think
Of course, some FMCG categories do attract habitual buyers: think condiments, crisps, soft drinks, cereals, beer, to name a few. We tend to imagine that when a need arises, a brand instantly comes to mind and is pursued, sometimes even before the shopper steps in the store or lands on an ecommerce webpage.
But Co-op transaction data from our 7.2M members tells a different story. In Q4 2025:
- Only 16% of our members bought a single soft drinks brand.
- 18% bought one snacking brand.
- 20% bought one beer brand.
Whilst brands associate themselves with a category or product type, our research shows that’s rarely how purchase intent starts.
The starting point is the mission
Purchase intent begins with a mission: “I’m thirsty”, “I’m peckish” or “I need something for dinner tonight”.
Shoppers start with a problem, not a brand or a category. Because brands tie themselves to categories, they often fail to show up when a mission is triggered. That’s why brands need to build familiarity against missions, not just categories.
How decisions are really made
Brands and retailers often assume that shoppers have set ideas about what they want to purchase, sometimes even brand-specific ones. In reality, shopping is a lot less rational.
Our recent behavioural study of 700+ Co-op shoppers, conducted in partnership with Trinity McQueen, found:
- 24% of shoppers had a mental shopping list and 8% had a physical list.
- Meaning, 68% of smaller store shoppers had no shopping list whatsoever.
- Only 1 in 5 lists actually specified a brand, and even then with caveats like ‘or similar’, ‘or equivalent’.
- And of those who did have a list, only half of them stuck to it.
Compared to large stores, where planning and intent is stronger, small stores create more flexibility. With fewer aisles and smaller ranges, the store itself has much more scope to influence decision-making.
Brands have around one second to attract attention at the shelf
Brands still need to fight for every single moment and every single item to enter the basket. But in small stores, they can do so more effectively by dialling up their visibility and resonance.
Convenience ads are looked at twice as long as supermarket ads (1.0sec for convenience and 0.4sec for large format stores) because the advertising actively helps shoppers complete their mission quickly and easily. Retail media works here not as persuasion alone, but as guidance at the point of decision.
Brands that are seen first, understood fastest, and feel like the easiest choice, are most likely to win. Influence operates under greater time pressure: shoppers are deciding for now, not browsing for later. In fact, 88% of shoppers don’t want to wait or purchase somewhere else. If a suitable product is visible and delivers against the mission, they’ll switch, substitute or trade up rather than leave empty-handed.
Promotions and in-store retail media support this moment by encouraging action and making choices feel easier. That’s why convenience is such a powerful environment for driving trial and brand switching or supporting new product launches.
If the goal is to ‘own the moment’, not the shopper, then brand communication needs to tap into this behaviour at the shelf and play to the advantages of a smaller store environment: focusing more on ‘reaction’ than ‘reach’ in this channel.
The small store advantage is its immediacy
If shoppers aren’t owned, then every purchasing decision is up for grabs. This implies that every decision can be contested through retail media.
Brands need to show up early to feature within the ‘solution’ consideration set and then show up late to get chosen. Early to get shortlisted; late to get selected. This is where retail media turns brand equity into action – before the shop and during it, right alongside visible salience at the shelf.
In convenience, there is greater time pressure, and shoppers want to make quick decisions and not leave empty-handed. The mission outweighs brand preference. Retail media is no longer about visibility, it’s about decisiveness. Brands need to position themselves as the easiest, most visible, and most available solution at the point of purchase. Because completing the mission outweighs brand preference.
Read more expert insight into retail media’s key issues from our Retail Media Age columnists.
