Typologies of Shoppers

Typology refers to classification of a phenomenon by the qualities essential to its identification. Typologies of shoppers have been an object of interest for decades. Shopping motives, shopping behavior, and shopping environment have been the characterizations used in the classification of types.

The central thing in classification of shopper types is to define the essential attributes of shopping and [Page 1487]to achieve as large a generalization as possible. These demands speak for the importance of the scope-emphasizing approach. The result is usually rough characterizations of the basic orientation of shoppers in a familiar, everyday supply environment.

On the other hand, shopping as a phenomenal field is in constant change. This is due to new innovative shopping environments and consumer behaviors that emphasize leisure, variety seeking, and the forms of sociability found in shopping environments. The rough classification of shopper types has occasionally been considered insufficient as an illustrator of consumer culture. The scope-emphasizing classification has been challenged by a more profound interpretation of the specificity-emphasizing approach.

Typologies of shoppers have developed from the types defined in Gregory Stone's (1954) seminal research on typologies that increasingly emphasize experience and the multichannel nature of shopping. This development is the basic scheme of this entry. The purpose is to offer a short description of three developmental phases in constructing typologies. The first concerns the phase confirming Stone's typology. The second discusses the increase of significance of the recreational orientation as a new, important dimension. The third brings forth the question of the significance of alternative shopping channels.

The validity of the classification of types is also considered, with particular emphasis on the tensions between the scope and specificity approaches. Scope is important given the permeating and ubiquitous nature of consumer culture. On the other hand, in a fragmented society, profound, specific features of consumer behavior are born, which can rapidly become common and generate consumption subgroups. In constant change, persistence and new developmental features are ever present.