For the last four years the retail industry has been living with an increasingly difficult economic situation. With the Budget announced in April and the government’s austerity measures making their impact, retailers and shoppers are facing major challenges. Could connecting with our feelings be the answerto a new currency in-store? The scale of the impact from the credit crunch, through the recession and into the age of austerity, has seen shoppers adopt a range of strategies to cope with budgetary constraints -prudence, economising, and even avoidance. “As the downturn continues, so shopper opinions are hardening, indicating that the changes in behaviours are becoming engrained and may continue, even when the economy improves.”   Research agency Shoppercentric began measuring how the economy was impacting on shopper buying behaviour, back in 2009. “When we compare some of the results we were seeing back then with data collected after the budget in April 2012, we can see how the extended nature of the downturn has impacted UK shoppers,” says Shoppercentric’s Managing Director, Danielle Pinnington. According to her company’s research,1 in 4 shoppers are now making major changes to household spending, with 1 in 10 struggling to pay their bills. At first it may sound perverse but ...