Our shopper research expectations for 2026

“What will be the shopper research topics this year?” This is a question we ask ourselves at the beginning of each year in the shopper team at IGD. In 2025, clear themes emerged when it came to the questions our global FMCG clients wanted to explore.

Where are the key hotspots in-store to drive impulse purchasing?

Whilst most businesses invest heavily in retail media and secondary space within supermarkets, marketing and activation teams often have a limited understanding of the return on their investments. As a result, many of our clients in 2025 were keen to know where they should invest in-store to drive optimal brand awareness and engagement.

At IGD, we tailor our research to our clients’ specific objectives, categories and also their budgets. There are, however, certain research methodologies we believe are most effective to truly understand what shoppers notice and engage with on their shopping journeys. A combination of in-store observations and intercepts, followed by eye-tracked shops and in-depth interviews, gives a rich picture of where shoppers spend the most time browsing in-store, what types of activations and messaging work, but more importantly, drive conversion.

What we found in 2025 is that the hotspots and the types of secondary displays and retail media that are most effective at driving conversion differ significantly by category, channel and market. We therefore anticipate that one of the most popular research themes of 2026 will again be understanding where and how to invest in-store to achieve the greatest impact.

How can we unlock additional growth opportunities across specific channels?

In 2025, the shopper consulting team became experts in the European convenience channel, spending many hours in petrol stations and convenience stores in different markets, observing and engaging with shoppers. Clients realised that they were not fully equipped to win in this channel and therefore needed to understand more about shopper behaviour and expectations, by market. Combining a mixture of quantitative and qualitative research techniques, alongside IGD market experts and facilitated workshops, we helped our clients set themselves up for success within the convenience channel.

In 2026, we predict that our clients will be looking for support when developing their online strategies. According to IGD’s global channel forecasts, online will be the fastest-growing channel and will gain the most share by 2030. In the UK, we also predict that online will be the fastest growing channel between 2025 and 2030, with a CAGR of 4.3% (see our ‘Global Channel Forecasts 2025-2030’). With online set to continue to be one of the fastest-growing channels, we know businesses will be looking for ways to optimise their investment in the channel. To help our clients, we have created a suite of solutions to answer questions such as ‘How can I increase impulse purchasing of my brand online?’, ‘Where should I invest media spend online?’ As we start the new year, we are already hearing back from some of our clients who realise the online market is changing rapidly, and so what was true a few years ago will no longer be relevant.

Quick commerce is becoming an essential offer for retailers and a route to entering online for less-established players, meeting the needs of specific missions and occasions. In 2026, as established quick commerce players increase their coverage, products, and delivery options and introduce new initiatives to differentiate and scale, we anticipate more clients seeking to understand shopper missions and occasions in this channel and identify growth opportunities.

How will the implementation of the Deposit Return Scheme in the UK in 2027 impact shopper behaviour in our category?

A Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for drinks containers will be launched in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland in October 2027. Retailers are looking to soft drink and alcohol manufacturers to provide insights to help them effectively plan for the implementation of the scheme. In 2025, some of our clients approached us to understand the impact that DRS could have on UK soft behaviour, both in the short and long term, to support strategic planning. We identified how the DRS is likely to impact the category within the UK and provided considerations for UK retailers. We also developed an extensive list of opportunities for our clients, as well as some potential challenges and how they could be overcome.

As the implementation of DRS fast approaches, we expect more questions focused on the importance of sustainability to shoppers and specifically the impact that DRS could have on drinks categories and specific brands.

If you are starting to think about your activation plans for the coming year or are developing your channel strategies, then get in touch with us to discuss how we could support you through shopper research. You can email me at [email protected].