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MacroMonitor Market Trends Newsletter March 2020

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Households That Shop for Low-Cost Financial Services

In a marketplace dominated by price competition, many households shop on the basis of price. The reason for doing so is that more US households experience money worries than experience any other source of stress (see the April 2019 MacroMonitor Market Trends Newsletter). However, knowing the lowest cost of a product or service doesn't guarantee a purchase decision on the basis of price. Smart shoppers want to know cost options, even though specific product attributes, perceived value, brand recognition, or irrational (not always logical) behavior may determine the final purchase.

Even among households with $100K or more in financial assets (54 million households), only 14% (7.3 million) report that they mostly agree that they always shop for the lowest-cost services; 14% (7.6 million) mostly disagree with the statement. More than 70% of all households are in the middle (somewhat agree or somewhat disagree).

Figure 1: Trend: "I am always looking for the lowest-cost financial services." (Households with $100K* or More in Financial Assets)

The proportion of households that somewhat or mostly agree that they always look for lowest-cost financial services has decreased from 61% in 1998 to 51% in 2018; since 2004, the overall trend has remained flat. The trend of households that mostly agree has declined from 27% to 14% during the same period—a more precipitous decline; possible reasons for the decline are worth exploring.

One advantage of scaled-response data is that, depending on the analytics goal, the data allow for study of various scales. Learn more about the importance of scaled-response trends and their use.

Additional deliverables are available to MacroMonitor subscribers:

  • March's Segment Summary: Households That Always Look for the Lowest-Cost Financial Services
  • The underlying set of data for this Segment Summary (by request)

The MacroMonitor provides fact-based information to identify, profile, and understand household populations better. For more information, please contact us.