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Chelmsford, Massachusetts - (via THE HOSTING NEWS) - August 25, 2005 - A new survey conducted by Harris Interactive and sponsored by Kronos Incorporated among U.S. adults reveals that shoppers may be more likely to make impulse purchases for themselves during the back-to-school season, and that many retailers are missing the opportunity to cash in.

The decision to make non-essential purchases has been known to be directly related to the level of customer service a shopper receives. The availability of a sales associate to answer a question, or to simply ring a sale, often makes the difference between buying and not buying for the consumer. Retailers are aware of this dynamic focus and usually deliver high customer service during the holiday shopping season - but not the back-to-school season, according to the survey.

The “Back-to-School: Inside the Consumer Psyche” survey found that the majority of consumers surveyed said they are more likely to make purchases for themselves during the back-to-school season than they are during the holiday season. And the buying behavior of these consumers appears to be dependent on optimal customer service. The survey found that 82 percent of consumers will only wait in line for less than 15 minutes before abandoning their shopping cart when making a non-related back-to-school purchase during the back-to-school season. In addition, the survey found that 68 percent of consumers shop for themselves during the back-to-school shopping season even if they are not going back to school.

Every retailer needs to focus on customer service in order to prepare for the back-to-school shopping season. According to the “Back-to-School: Inside the Consumer Psyche” survey, the top three factors that contribute to a positive shopping experience are: items are in stock (93 percent); pleasant sales associates (85 percent); and convenient store hours (84 percent). And, it is apparent that many retailers need to increase their focus in these areas because when asked about their satisfaction with their in-store shopping experience over the past two years, 91 percent of survey respondents said it stayed the same or decreased.

If retailers increase their focus on customer service during the back-to-school season, there is great potential for them to get a head start for the holiday season. The hidden group of shoppers that is spending this season even though they are not going back to school is poised to drive a significant amount of revenue. The “Back-to-School: Inside the Consumer Psyche” survey found that 27 percent of back-to-school shoppers(1) will spend more than $400 in stores this year for back-to-school shopping. In addition, 81 percent of back-to-school shoppers will spend the same, more, or significantly more this year than last year in back-to-school shopping.

While the workforce is every retailer’s largest controllable expense, it is also their most strategic asset. Demand-Driven Workforce Management enables retailers to align their workforce with all sources of store operations demand — corporate, production, customer, and employee. By taking a demand-driven approach to workforce management, retailers can balance the needs of their business, customers, and employees, leading to higher levels of store productivity, customer service, and employee satisfaction.

Greg Buzek, president of IHL Consulting Group explained, “Retailers everywhere are dealing with the challenges of rising labor costs in a market that refuses to allow pricing increases. This places tremendous pressure on the proper allocation of labor throughout the stores. In order for retailers to effectively compete in the battle over customer loyalty, they must provide a level of service and personal knowledge of the customer. The only way to provide this optimal level of customer satisfaction is to rely on workforce management solutions developed by technology companies, such as Kronos, that can input historical and forecasted sales data into the labor management process.”

IHL Consulting Group is a global research and advisory firm that provides market analysis and business consulting services for retailers and information technology companies that focus on the retail industry.

Delivering the most widely adopted workforce management solutions in the retail industry, Kronos is helping best practice retailers take a demand-driven approach to their workforce. Kronos for Retail - an end-to-end workforce management suite - empowers retailers with tools for budgeting, forecasting, scheduling, time and attendance, and analytics. This integrated workforce management platform enables retailers to most effectively schedule their employees around customer demand and see that the right employee is at the right place at the right time - whether that be stocking shelves, helping customers find an item, or working in the check-out aisle.

“Everything we do at Kronos is about helping our customers compete more effectively,” said Stuart Itkin, vice president of marketing at Kronos Incorporated. “With the information we gleaned from this survey on what makes shoppers tick, we are able to ensure that the solutions we create allow retailers to better align with their customers’ wants and needs.”

Harris Interactive(R) conducted the online survey in the U.S. on behalf of Kronos Incorporated between July 28 and Aug. 16, 2005 among a nationwide cross-section of 795 adults (aged 18+). Figures for age, sex, race, education, and income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

In theory, with probability samples of this size, one could say with 95 percent certainty that the overall results have a sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points of what they would be if the entire adult population had been polled with complete accuracy. Sampling error for the sample of adults who plan to do back-to-school shopping this year or have done it within the past two years (453) is plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

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