The Microshopping Movement – Two Steps Forward

ThinkWithGoogle Gets It Almost Right

“In the middle of washing dishes, Cathy broke his milk frother and reflexively turned to his smartphone to find a replacement. Within five minutes, it was purchased and on its way. Motivated by ease and efficiency, she crossed off this new task before it even hit her to-do list.” – ThinkWithGoogle*

You never know when a moment of pure genius and inspiration will strike you. It could be on the train to work, it could be while walking your dog, it could be while sitting in a boring meeting. When it does, you grab your phone (if it’s somehow not in your hand) and you fire off a Tweet or Facebook post or text your friend.

You don’t want to lose that witty observation, you type it out, post it and get back to what you were doing. That’s a salient point of having a mobile device – take care of what you need to take care of when the idea strikes you. These kinds of microcommunications happen all day long. That’s one reason that people check their phones as much as 1,500 times per week.

When it comes to shopping, we believe you should have that same ability. There is no need to curate a long shopping list of the things that you buy over and over again, you know what you’re loyal to. Look around your desk or office, you’ll see the pens you like, the coffee you always run out of, and maybe the earbuds you’ve had to replace three times already because you’ve a) stepped on them b) misplaced them c) left them on an airplane.

So, when that same “aha!” moment happens where you realize you need to buy something, you should have the ability to grab your phone, open the shopping app that has your go-to list (or lets you search for something easily), fire off an order, and get back to what you were doing when you had that thought. This kind of microshopping experience is possible and makes sense, given your experience with both shopping for the products you love and how you use your phone.

From a decision-making point of view, there are a few steps we all go through in buying things.

1. Need recognition or problem awareness. “I’ve only got five protein bars left.”

2. Information search “I am looking online for where to buy these”

3. Evaluation of alternatives “I could drive to the store. I could order online.”

4. Purchase “Yay. Protein bars are coming.”

5. Post-purchase evaluation “These protein bars came via UPS quickly and now I am eating delicious protein bars.”

Well, if you’ve been eating the same brand of protein bars, you shouldn’t go through all those steps just to put more bars into the pantry. The goal is to make it as seamless as possible when you notice you’re down to your last couple of protein bars – turn the need recognition into step one and purchase into step two. And that’s all you really need to do.

Relating this back to Twitter, you also check it to read what other people are doing. In this same way, create a list of commonly bought items on the GimmeAnother app [iOS, Android] and scroll through that list when you’re waiting for your lunch companion. If you somehow forgot to order toothpaste that morning, seeing it on your list will jog your memory and it will save you time on the way home.

Guess what? Ordering a new milk frother might take 5 minutes, but re-ordering your favorite espresso beans shouldn’t.

– The GimmeAnother Team

* www.thinkwithgoogle.com: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/micromoments/time-for-a-new-one-moments.html