A behavioural study of thousands of Tesco shoppers shared exclusively with The Grocer has found the majority of grocery purchases are “open to influence”.
The study of 7,000 Tesco shoppers, by the supermarket’s retail network Tesco Media, found 76% of basket items are typically “new, lapsed or occasional” rather than habitual.
Further, for seven in 10 shoppers, “the final decision on what to buy overwhelmingly happens in the moment” with a similar proportion saying they enjoyed discovering new brands during their shop.
“The supermarket isn’t just a place where decisions are finalised, it’s a place where they are formed,” said Stacy Gratz, sales and marketing director at Tesco Media.
The findings of the study – conducted in partnership with independent consultancy MTM – “contradicts the popular assumption that people walk into a supermarket with their minds made up and a list ready to tick off”, Gratz added.
“Instead, this research shows that shoppers are curious, eager to discover new products, and open to inspiration throughout their journey,” she said.
The research suggests shoppers have seven distinct “shopper mindsets”, with half (51%) switching from ‘functional’ to ‘emotive’ mindsets at some stage during their shop. Shoppers draw purchase inspiration from social feeds, family and friends, retailer emails, Tesco.com browsing and in-store cues, the research suggests. More than half of shoppers discover new products before they begin a shop, while a similar number do so during their shop.
The consumer insight – shared in a report Moving Mindsets – is drawn from qualitative and quantitative research conducted between July and September 2025, which surveyed 7,032 Tesco shoppers.
Tesco Media said 21,933 “real shopping mindset moments” were captured across both in-store and online shopping journeys, covering product categories including grocery; impulse; beer, wine & spirits; and health & beauty.
The supermarket – like many of its rivals – has been ramping up its retail media efforts in recent years. It has been rapidly expanding its network of in-store digital screens, as well as launching location-based ads on self-scan handsets.
Late last year, Tesco Media launched Tesco Media Creative Studio, which will work with brands to quickly create compliant ads in multiple formats using generative AI. The supermarket also began filming customers to monitor how they respond to digital advertising screens in its stores.
According to data released today by WARC Media, global retail media ad spend is set to reach $196.7bn in 2026, overtaking the combined linear and connected TV spend next year, having amounted to barely a quarter of the total TV market in 2019.
As well as convincing food and drink brands to spend advertising budgets on retail media, supermarkets are increasingly targeting non-grocery brands.
Tesco’s study found 78% of shoppers are “open to contextually relevant advertising from non-endemic brands” that cannot be bought in store – including financial services, entertainment, travel and healthcare.
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