Megan Carnegie is a journalist and editor. She has written for Courier, Time Out, Guardian Weekend, Creative Review, The Telegraph, Evening Standard, and more. Outside of work, she can be found reading, running, and killing off her houseplants.

The pandemic has upended shopping in ways no one could have predicted. After a year of retail being limited to the 

of a parcel delivery and, for some, the opening of 

, people are returning to brick-and-mortar with renewed appreciation. Although many might have imagined COVID-19 to be a death knell for IRL retail, the opposite is true as consumers emerge from long winter lockdowns. Indeed, according to research from Deloitte, 

 in Scotland want to shop on the high street rather than online – and nearly half claim they would pay more to do so.

However, there’s no denying that the expansion of fulfilment options – from 

 – means that consumers have more choice in how they shop. With many people hesitant to return to physical spaces while COVID-19 remains a threat and some simply preferring new methods, retailers can’t simply take these options off the table. Instead, they are aiming to integrate new processes seamlessly into their store designs. In the US, grocery store 

 is trialling a shop format that features a permanent online order hub, pharmacy drive-thru, and parking spots allocated for grocery pick-up. Meanwhile, 

 is aiming to renegotiate some of its store leases to include curbside pick-up parking spots, and the UK’s first 

Not only are product choices ever-widening, but the ways we get our hands on items are also expanding fast. Post-pandemic, discerning shoppers will seek to map their desires on to the 

 as well as what. Although it remains to be seen whether people are pickier as a result of the crisis, they have certainly seen the limitations of online shopping – 

 of Scottish shoppers say the online experience is simply ‘not good enough’. In this brave new shopping world, it is important to consider the profile of the picky shopper and how they might influence in-person customer service, online UX, and sales tactics. With almost no prior research in the area, Dr. Andong Cheng, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Delaware, set out to get 

. On what criteria do they base their buying decisions? And are they the most likely group to return purchases? Canvas8 spoke to Dr. Cheng to find out how people demonstrate this ‘pickiness’ and how it might impact retail strategies.

Why is this topic important to understand?

There’s some research done on clinically picky eaters, like children, who are picky in the food domain, but no one’s really looking into the construct of picky shoppers yet. I went out to define the meaning of picky and clearly articulate what it is and what it is not. It’s easier for picky people to cause problems for companies because there's so much information available. People can define and crystallise their preferences. It's easier to do online shopping and make returns, so tracking individuals can be quite difficult. I thought research into pickiness could be interesting because if firms can identify which consumers are picky, that gives an advantage. And if someone's not so picky, they'll have an easier time attracting and retaining them.

Discerning shoppers don’t always have an exact idea of what they’re looking for

How did you go about conducting your study?

We went out into the field and asked people to give us definitions of picky in the context of shopping. They came up with definitions and then our research team looked at if there's an overlapping pattern – keywords and phrases that people kept using. We consolidated that into a smaller subset of around a hundred phrases on a scale and got people to organise them into the two buckets that we thought people belong in. The first types being pickiness by acceptance, the second being pickiness by rejection.We then ran a lot of structural equation models and factor analysis to make sure that these two types of pickiness belong under the picky umbrella overall. Finally, we took our scale and gave it to a lot of consumers, then also gave them choices and opinions on how they view different products.

84% of UK shoppers read online reviews before buying

There are two different categories of picky people. The first type – picky by acceptance – knows exactly what they want, their ideas are very crystallised, precise, and specific. They have an extremely vivid idea of product attributes they’re seeking. They would go to the store and give the sales associate a huge list of features they're looking for. If something doesn't match exactly what they're imagining, they leave. Their preferences are extremely narrow and it's hard to convince these people to change their minds or be more open-minded. We call them picky by acceptance because they know what they're willing to accept.

The second type – picky by rejection – may not have such a clear idea of exactly what they like, but as they're shopping, they find the features of the product they don’t like or nit-pick when making purchases. Imagine a woman trying on shoes at a store. Every pair has a problem – the material is not good, the heel is not good, the shape, size, whatever the case may be. They're always very sensitive and can identify potential flaws or problems without deliberately looking for them. We call this pickiness by rejection because it's like identifying things to reject.

This is not mutually exclusive. Someone who's extremely picky might have both of these elements. But at least we know where pickiness might cognitively come from. We tested this by going to a country fair and asked people to take surveys. In one of them, we invented the picture scale. At the end of the survey, we thanked participants for participating in our research and asked them if they would like a free gift – an orange water bottle. It had no monetary cost for the person and it was a hot summer day. We found that picky people rejected the orange water bottle at a higher frequency than people who were less picky.

We deliberately designed the bottles to be orange, which isn’t many people's favourite colour. Those less picky might say ‘okay, I don't care, a free gift is great’. Those who are picky might say ‘orange is not what I envisioned in my life. I'd rather reject this free gift and not have anything at all’. This is the notion that picky people might be those who don't have a lot of possessions or might defer choice or reject something if it doesn't fit perfectly into the vision of their life.

We also found that the pickiest people aren’t influenced by others. We ran a study where we asked people to pick a chocolate out of around 24 different types. We then told them the most popular chocolate choice was not the one they picked and we asked them if they wanted to switch for the most popular one or stick with their original selection. Less picky people were more easily persuaded to give the popular one a try because they thought it was probably better. The pickiest people tended to stick with their original choice. Even if they know something else is viewed as more desirable for others, and even with that social pressure, they like to stick to their original choices.

How can brands cater to the behaviours of picky consumers?

Dr. Cheng believes that people are increasingly picky because of a growing culture of minimalism. “They’re not just going to buy whatever’s available to them. It has to be something they’re perfectly suited to,” she says. The pandemic further fuelled this shift in mindset, with lockdowns enforcing a slower pace of life and driving people to reassess material possessions – even the ones they already owned. 

 saw business surge as people sought help clearing their ‘stuff’, while thrift stores and 

 experienced a deluge of donations when they reopened. Decluttering – or being picky with objects already acquired – reportedly has numerous health benefits, combating 

 are enabling decluttering and cyclical models by offering rewards for the return of unwanted goods. Members of 

 can even get gift vouchers for their old gear. and its 

 in 2020 gave a lesson in generating buzz about experiences over product accumulation.

Someone who’d score highly on the picky shopper scale would also, as Dr. Cheng points out, be more willing to complain about products with minor cosmetic defects and return or exchange goods. This could also cause them to “view the brand negatively,” when the problems are “quite subjective in nature.” As e-commerce sales in the US rose during 2020, reportedly leaping 

 year-on-year, returns also skyrocketed. According to logistics platform Narvar, returns of e-commerce packages increased by 70%, equating to approximately $102 billion of merchandise. In turn, consumers are placing increasing weight on retailers’ performance in the process – 

 say the returns experience is important in regards to their opinion of a retailer, while 83% say the same about delivery and payment.

With people relishing new shopping avenues, building trust the moment a consumer enters an e-commerce or brick-and-mortar site is key. Online reviews hold serious clout, with 

 reportedly reading online reviews before buying. Interestingly though, 90% would give companies a second chance before giving up on them for good, provided a complaint is handled properly and to their satisfaction. Additionally, 30% of shoppers would look more favourably on retailers that actively respond to negative reviews online. Airline JetBlue is particularly adept at this, using 

 as its main customer service channel to reply swiftly, sympathetically, and always with a solution. “Bad reviews that remain unanswered signal to other customers that you are disinterested,” says customer service expert 

. “It also fuels the perception that the negative report by an angry customer was probably accurate.”

Another emerging issue that could be prevalent among picky shoppers is cart abandonment. Customer data and identity platform Amperity found that at the start of the pandemic, there was a 

 cart abandonment rate, compared to 85.1% in the same period of 2019. While this could be put down to pandemic boredom, some consumers may jump ship because of lengthy checkout processes and, in the UK, 

 say they’ve been turned off because they’ve seen high delivery costs. With m-commerce set to make up 

 of total global online sales by the end of 2021, optimising the purchasing process for mobile phones could also mitigate the problem. 

 to those who get far enough in the checkout process to include a phone number, helping companies re-entice shoppers who’ve abandoned their carts.

 of shoppers in Scotland want to shop on the high street rather than online post-pandemic, with 

 of American shoppers say that the returns experience is important in regards to their opinion of a retailer 

 of British shoppers would look more favourably on retailers that actively respond to negative reviews online 

There are two categories of picky shoppers –those who know exactly what they want and those who identify flaws while discovering a product

Picky shoppers are less inclined to accept free gifts from brands and aren’t swayed by the opinions of others in their decision-making

Shoppers tend to abandon shopping carts because of boredom, though lengthy checkout processes and high delivery costs are also factors

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United States

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Behavioural Sciences

From eco-credentials to delivery times, discerning shoppers have extensive checklists for brands to meet. But as people increasingly blend online and offline purchasing, what factors affect their buying decisions? Canvas8 spoke to Dr. Andong Cheng about picky shoppers and how to spot them.

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