Grocery shopping. Most of us do it. Some of us reluctantly, some of us with a sense of anticipation and pleasure. Some of us want it to be social, and some want it over and done with as soon as possible. Some approach it with military precision and others can be heard wailing 'argh, I forgot the milk!' on the way home (ok, that's me).

Grocery retailers need to take into account myriad attitudes and approaches and make the experience satisfying for customers and profitable for the company. Like all marketers, to get that balance right, they need to know how people feel, their habits and what they like. Synovate asked more than 6,700 people across 10 markets to spill the beans on their grocery shopping approach.

Aisle style
Even seemingly simple questions like 'how often do you shop?' and 'where?' inspire vastly different answers from market to market, culture to culture. Overall, a big weekly shop in the supermarket is the 'norm' but generalisations across markets are of less value than looking at each market separately. >>MORE

It's about spending money...
Grocery retail marketing is specialised because the act of buying groceries is so necessary in most people's lives – they walk into the store with the intent to buy and at least some idea of what to buy. Accordingly, price becomes a major differentiation point. Synovate's survey looked at attitudes towards the money spent in the world's supermarkets. >>MORE

But it's also about spending time
Even if you only grocery shop for one hour a week during your adult life, you're spending way in excess of 3,000 hours of your life in the supermarket. If you like the experience, that's a big chunk of time... and if you hate it, phew. It can be tough to be a grocery retailer. What do people most want from a grocery shopping experience? >>MORE

Go for groceries and gossip?
Would shopping be better if there were different facilities? For the in-and-out shoppers perhaps not, but people in some markets expressed interest in a variety of supermarket features. >>MORE

Green groceries and sustainable supermarkets
And no, we're not referring to broccoli! Clearly all-things-green are a major consideration for any business. And with 62% agreeing they would go out of their way to shop at an environmentally-friendly supermarket, that consideration is not misplaced. >>MORE

About the In:fact global grocery shopping survey
Numbers of surveyed

BR 599

CA 950

FR 497

HK 841

MY 760

NL 472

RU 1028

RS 600

UAE 501

USA 499