As the holiday shopping season begins, U.S. retailers will face significant barriers to simply raising prices in response to rising food and fuel costs, according to an Accenture survey that polled nearly 1,000 people across the country on their shopping plans and their use of daily deal sites.
The annual Accenture Pricing Shopping Survey shows that four out of five consumers (81%) are concerned about food prices going up this year, while half of respondents (51%) report they've been eating out less often over the past year. The survey also found that nearly four in 10 respondents (37%) have memberships with daily deal websites in order to pocket savings.
"Understanding how different types of customers will behave for each category is going to be the key to pricing consumer goods," says Tom Jacobson, Accenture senior executive of pricing profitability strategy. "Although rising food prices have outpaced wage increases, more than a third of the survey respondents have not altered their food-buying patterns. Reluctance to change behaviors seems highest when it comes to changing how consumers shop and what they buy."
