Saving time is more important to customers than saving money in Switzerland, according to a new Swiss retail survey by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute (GDI).
The report, titled Going shopping is dead – How to restore meaning and fun in retail, unveiled that the Swiss no longer consider shopping an enjoyable leisure activity.
The study comprised two representative consumer surveys, conducted in July and August 2023, involving 1,500 German-speaking Swiss citizens.
A little over half of those polled (50.5%) prefer to spend their time doing something other than shopping, while approximately one in four (26.4%) would rather not spend any time at all shopping, the data showed.
Time Spent Shopping
Over the past 25 years, the average time spent by Swiss consumers on shopping has seen an overall decline of 17%.
The average time spent shopping fell from 139 minutes in 1997 to 120 minutes in 2020, according to data from the Swiss Federal Statistical Office, and it dropped to 115 minutes in 2023, GDI data showed.
Currently, the Swiss spend only about 16.4 minutes a day shopping, and weekly shopping trips are likely to be even shorter in the future.
Almost a fifth of respondents (19.9%) want to cut their shopping time further in the next 12 months.
For 85% of those polled, the most important thing is to get their shopping done as quickly and efficiently as possible.
The study showed that about 3% wish that they had more time for shopping, while just 15% still set out to browse through shops.
Other Findings
The study identified four types of shoppers: aimless browsers, strictly needs-oriented shoppers, open-minded optimisers, and efficient-identity shoppers.
For the last three shopper types, the need to shop quickly and efficiently is common, the survey found.
It also highlighted that not every respondent found grocery shopping tedious or unpleasant, and gender and age group have an impact on the attitude towards shopping.
Women and men spend more or less the same amount of time shopping, as men take on more and more household chores every year, the study noted.
Data also showed that more women (28.8%) now enjoy shopping less than they did five years ago, compared with just 16.2% of men.
Shopping was cited as the household chore that couples most often do together, with 41% saying that they share the responsibility for shopping across all income brackets and family types.
