Mind The Gap: Consumer Research Across Retail & Hospitality Post-Lockdown

Like everyone else, we were keeping a close eye on things as businesses reopened, and as the early research seemed to indicate some challenging trends and consumer behaviour (footfall and sales down by 50% and people less likely to return having been back just once, for example), we really wanted to understand what lay behind this. 

So we thought we’d take it a step further and invest our time and money into understanding the gaps that are now even more apparent in customer experiences and share our findings far and wide, driving R&D to go alongside our R&B, and helping these critical industries through unprecedented times.

And when we fully understand these gaps and changes in behaviour, we can then help to fill and adapt to them with great music and experiences that are just as fun as before, whilst crucially adhering to the government guidelines.

Methodology

The research is conducted continuously across each month with 1000+ UK-based adults aged 18 and over, who go to a retail shop/pub/restaurant at least once a month. 

The sample is nationally representative of the UK and is split evenly across retail, restaurants and pubs, allowing for segmentation and comparison across sectors so trends can be identified across the ensuing months. This gives us a robust and up-to-the minute data sample with a 95% confidence level, with a margin of error of +/- 5%.

We will also supplement and enrich our own research with secondary research, including that of YouGov, the most comprehensive market research company in the U.K, and we’ll release weekly articles on this hub that detail key findings from the research.

Our survey questions are focussed around frequency of and intention to visit, the consumer’s perception of the atmosphere and experience, how fun, relaxing, sociable they find it, how important music, other people and/or entertainment is to their experience etc.

This will give businesses great insight into the hearts and minds of people, aiding business strategies and activations to drive more people back through the door.

A Word from our CEO, Adam

"We're hugely proud to be launching the Startle Mind The Gap research hub. It was clear from some of the early post-lockdown retail and hospitality customer research that the sectors are faced with some huge challenges. There are two key elements for me; helping businesses understand and adhere to the government guidelines and, arguably more importantly, understanding what the consumer is thinking, how they are behaving, and what they intend to do. From here we can help businesses fill the gaps that the new legislation has opened up to create memorable atmospheres and experiences that are fun like before, and drive more people back to stores, pubs and restaurants.”

Please, please, mind the gap

- Scouting For Girls

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