By Dhanya Skariachan
NEW YORK Jan 16 (Reuters) – Welcome to the era of the
candid consumer.
From their food allergies to home addresses, shoppers around
the world are becoming increasingly willing to share more
personal information with their favorite merchants, as they look
for a more personalized and efficient shopping experience, an
IBM survey of more than 28,000 people in 15 countries showed.
That is good news for retailers on both sides of the
Atlantic as they look for ways to target the right demographic
of shoppers with new products.
“They are willing to share information if there is perceived
benefit,” said Jill Puleri, global retail leader of IBM’s
global business services. “It doesn’t have to be
monetary benefit.”
While consumers around the world still have reservations
about sharing financial details such as how much they earn, they
are less worried about divulging other private information.
For instance, about three-quarters of the people surveyed
were willing to dish out details about their media usage such as
the TV shows they watch, while 73 percent of the group were fine
with disclosing demographic information such as their ethnicity.
About 61 percent of people were comfortable sharing their
names and addresses with retailers, while about 59 percent of
those surveyed said they were OK with disclosing
lifestyle-related information such as whether they owned more
than one car, or had moved into a new home, or had a child
recently.
“These are things that I think are pretty important to a
retailer,” Puleri said, adding that the change in shopper
behavior was phenomenal.
Continued…
