Retailers do not fully understand the needs of shoppers at convenience stores and are missing out on a huge untapped market potential, according to a new research report ‘Windows on Convenience Shopping' launched by Shoppercentric, an independent agency specialising in shopper behaviour research.

With more than a thousand online interviews conducted amongst a nationally representative sample of UK households, the purpose of this new research was to challenge the industry to look at the convenience channel with fresh eyes and to investigate what differentiates the many faces of convenience.

Danielle Pinnington, managing director at Shoppercentric, said: "The ‘convenience channel' is a widely adopted concept in the retail industry, with business strategies and management structures projecting the vision of a unified business model based on common principles.

"Of course, the reality isn't that simple. Shoppers care little for industry labels. Our research shows that they are more likely to dash into a supermarket for their short term shopping needs than into a designated ‘convenience' store: for nearly nine out of 10 shoppers, convenience shopping is all about location and opening hours, not store size and format.

"That said, within the convenience stable, our research shows that shoppers do differentiate between different breeds of store and there's work to be done across all types of these stores in order to meet shopper needs."