Growth Frameworks
Jobs To Be Done

What Are Jobs to Be Done in Retail? A Beginner’s Guide

Qualitative Exploration

What Are Jobs to Be Done in Retail? A Beginner’s Guide

Introduction

When people shop, they aren’t just buying products – they’re solving problems, easing frustrations, or trying to feel a certain way. Whether they're choosing a pair of sneakers, a new coffee maker, or tonight's dinner ingredients, there's often a deeper purpose behind that purchase. In retail, understanding those purposes is the key to creating experiences and solutions that truly resonate with customers. This is where the 'Jobs to Be Done' (JTBD) framework comes in. JTBD helps businesses go beyond demographics and purchasing data to uncover why people really buy. It’s about identifying the progress a customer is trying to make in a given situation – the “job” they’re hiring a product or experience to do for them.
This beginner-friendly guide explores what Jobs to Be Done means in the retail space and why it matters now more than ever. As the buyer journey becomes more complex and customer expectations rise, retailers and brand teams are realizing that traditional data points – age, gender, purchase history – only tell part of the story. If you're a business leader, marketer, or product developer aiming to level up your retail strategy, JTBD thinking can be a powerful foundation. It helps you uncover true consumer motivation, inspire fresh retail innovation, and build better customer experiences based on real-world needs – not just assumed wants. In this guide, you'll learn: - What 'Jobs to Be Done' really means in a retail context - The difference between functional, emotional, and social customer jobs - How customer insights rooted in JTBD can support smarter decisions across product development, messaging, and market positioning With the right retail market research methods and frameworks, you can view your shoppers not simply as buyers, but as people trying to make progress in their lives. And when you support that progress, growth follows.
This beginner-friendly guide explores what Jobs to Be Done means in the retail space and why it matters now more than ever. As the buyer journey becomes more complex and customer expectations rise, retailers and brand teams are realizing that traditional data points – age, gender, purchase history – only tell part of the story. If you're a business leader, marketer, or product developer aiming to level up your retail strategy, JTBD thinking can be a powerful foundation. It helps you uncover true consumer motivation, inspire fresh retail innovation, and build better customer experiences based on real-world needs – not just assumed wants. In this guide, you'll learn: - What 'Jobs to Be Done' really means in a retail context - The difference between functional, emotional, and social customer jobs - How customer insights rooted in JTBD can support smarter decisions across product development, messaging, and market positioning With the right retail market research methods and frameworks, you can view your shoppers not simply as buyers, but as people trying to make progress in their lives. And when you support that progress, growth follows.

What Does 'Jobs to Be Done' Mean in Retail?

At its core, the Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) theory suggests that customers “hire” products and services to help them achieve specific outcomes in their lives. These aren’t just transactional needs – they often involve deeper goals like saving time, avoiding stress, feeling confident, or connecting with others. In the retail context, JTBD thinking shifts the focus away from “who the customer is” to “what the customer is trying to accomplish.” This mindset allows retailers to build more meaningful experiences, develop relevant products, and tailor messaging that connects on a practical and emotional level.

How JTBD Differs from Traditional Retail Thinking

Many traditional retail strategies start with segments – age, income, lifestyle – and work backward. JTBD starts by identifying the problem customers are trying to solve and then designing retail solutions around that job, regardless of demographics. For example: - Instead of focusing on a “35-year-old mom,” JTBD asks: What job is she hiring children’s snacks to do? Maybe it’s to ease guilt about convenience food or to keep her kids quiet while shopping. - Instead of assuming a shopper wants trendy shoes, JTBD explores whether the real job is to appear stylish at work, prevent foot pain after standing for hours, or both.

Retail JTBD Framework Explained

Retailers use the JTBD framework by identifying common customer “jobs” – both big-picture and moment-specific – across the buyer journey in retail environments, including online and in-store. This approach ties closely to customer experience research and insights gathering. Market research tools such as in-depth interviews, shop-alongs, ethnographic studies, and journey mapping can all reveal the true motivations and friction points in shopper behavior.

Benefits of Using JTBD in Retail Strategy

Understanding JTBD has far-reaching impact on how brands approach: - Product innovation and merchandising - Packaging and labeling - Store and e-commerce design - Messaging and marketing strategy It helps teams align business decisions around realistic consumer insights and unmet needs – not just trends or assumptions. By viewing every purchase decision as a functional or emotional job being fulfilled, retailers can differentiate themselves and build stronger brand loyalty. In a highly competitive market, retail leaders who integrate JTBD thinking into their customer understanding can deliver solutions that truly matter – and stand out in a crowded landscape.

Why Shoppers Buy: Key Functional, Emotional, and Social Jobs

When someone walks into a store or clicks "Add to Cart," they're not always just buying a product – they're trying to accomplish something in their lives. That something is what Jobs to Be Done aims to uncover. And it often falls into three categories: functional, emotional, and social jobs. Understanding this spectrum is key to decoding shopper behavior and shaping a more effective retail strategy. Let’s break each down.

Functional Jobs: The Practical Purpose

These are the basic tasks your product or service helps someone complete. In retail, functional jobs are usually the easiest to identify but are only part of the story. Examples: - A customer buys a vacuum to clean carpets more effectively. - Someone selects frozen meals to save time on weeknight dinners. - A shopper upgrades to a larger suitcase to avoid carry-on restrictions. Functional jobs align closely with utility and performance. Retail success often starts here, but deeper understanding goes further.

Emotional Jobs: How Consumers Want to Feel

Emotional jobs deal with how a product or shopping experience helps the customer feel – whether it’s confident, reassured, relaxed, or inspired. These emotions power strong brand connections and play a major role in the buyer journey in retail: - A shopper buys skincare to feel self-assured giving a presentation. - Someone chooses a cozy throw blanket to feel comforted after a long day. - A new parent shops organic baby food to reduce anxiety about their infant’s health. Research shows that emotional value often outweighs functional benefits in long-term customer loyalty. That’s why customer experience research that explores both emotional and functional triggers is so important.

Social Jobs: Influencing How Others See Us

Social jobs relate to customers’ desire to build or reinforce their identity, status, or group belonging. This is especially relevant in categories like fashion, electronics, fitness, or lifestyle-focused brands. Some common examples of social jobs: - Buying premium sneakers to appear trend-savvy among peers - Choosing eco-packaged goods to reflect personal values in public - Wearing a luxury watch as a signal of success These decisions aren’t purely driven by utility – they’re social statements. Brands that understand this can shape more effective messaging and community-building strategies.

Why All 3 Matter in Retail

Often, a single purchase addresses multiple jobs at once. Consider the fictional example of a customer buying a $200 chef’s knife: - Functional job: They want food prep to be faster and easier. - Emotional job: They want to feel confident and competent while cooking. - Social job: They want to appear skilled when friends come over for dinner. By identifying all levels of motivation, retail market research teams can better support product positioning, packaging design, and even shelf placement. JTBD insight brings clarity to what matters most to the consumer – and that is what fuels innovation. For business leaders and brand teams, acknowledging these layered customer goals leads to smarter, more human-centered choices. Whether you're launching a new product, redesigning a retail experience, or refining a message, knowing the jobs your customers are really trying to get done sets the foundation for better results.

Examples of Jobs to Be Done in a Retail Setting

To better understand what the Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) framework looks like in practice, let's explore some common examples of shopper behavior and motivation in retail. These 'jobs' go far beyond simply purchasing an item. Instead, they reflect the underlying reasons someone chooses a specific product, brand, or store – the progress they are trying to make in a given situation.

Functional Jobs

Functional jobs are the most straightforward. Shoppers come to a store or site looking to complete a task. For example:

  • A parent shopping for a child’s indoor shoes for gym class that starts tomorrow
  • A busy commuter choosing a healthy, quick lunch between meetings
  • A college student replacing a broken phone charger before an upcoming trip

In all these cases, the functional goal drives urgency and choice – but it's only part of the full picture.

Emotional Jobs

Emotional jobs involve how a shopper wants to feel during or after the shopping experience. For example:

  • Choosing a beautifully packaged candle to feel calm and pampered after a stressful week
  • Buying a premium wool coat to boost confidence during a job interview
  • Shopping for skincare that promotes a sense of self-care and wellness

These are examples of retail customers’ emotional needs guiding purchase behavior, often subconsciously.

Social Jobs

Social jobs are about the shopper’s desire to influence how they are perceived by others. These are sometimes tied to identity, status, or belonging. Some examples:

  • Purchasing a limited-edition sneaker to spark conversation among friends
  • Selecting sustainable cleaning products to show alignment with eco-conscious values
  • Buying upscale home decor before hosting a dinner party

Shoppers aren’t just “consuming” – they are curating versions of themselves for others.

These fictional examples highlight that knowing what a customer buys is only part of the equation. To innovate effectively in retail, we need insight into why people really buy – and JTBD research methods can uncover those valuable motivations throughout the retail buyer journey.

How JTBD Insights Help Retail Businesses Grow

Understanding customer motivations through the Jobs to Be Done framework gives retailers a powerful edge. When businesses go beyond demographics and dive into the true situations behind shopper choices, decisions around product design, marketing, and customer experience become more strategic and aligned with actual needs.

More Targeted Product Development

JTBD insights reveal the unmet needs that customers are trying to solve. With a clear view into functional, emotional, and social jobs, product teams can create solutions that fit real-life scenarios. Rather than asking, “What features should we offer?” teams ask, “What progress is our shopper trying to make, and how can we help?”

Example: Instead of launching another generic snack bar, a brand might uncover a key shopper job like “making it through the afternoon with stable energy on long workdays.” This leads to product innovation grounded in real consumer behavior research.

Smarter Retail Marketing

Customer motivation is central to compelling messaging. JTBD research helps retail marketers speak to the underlying “why” behind the purchase, not just features.

For instance, knowing that shoppers buy their athleisure wear to “feel confident and pulled together after school drop-off” allows marketing teams to create campaigns that resonate emotionally – often outperforming promotion-based tactics.

Improved In-Store and Online Experience

Retail customer experience research informed by JTBD can guide layout, UX, and services. If a shopper is trying to quickly validate a purchase choice between two brands, for example, adding a comparison feature or “trusted by” reviews can fulfill that job and smooth the buying process.

Innovation Grounded in Real Behavior

Jobs to Be Done helps reduce the guesswork in retail innovation. Whether you’re launching a new brand, updating merchandising, or entering a new market, JTBD research provides context around the problems worth solving for your customers. It uncovers not just what’s broken, but what better looks like in the shopper’s mind.

Ultimately, this customer-centric lens lets retailers grow by delivering relevance – connecting the buyer journey in retail to the actual life moments that matter most.

How SIVO Helps Retailers Identify and Use Customer Jobs

At SIVO Insights, we help retail teams move from assumptions to deep understanding by uncovering the true jobs their customers are trying to get done. Our consumer insights approach pairs time-tested qualitative and quantitative research methods with frameworks like JTBD to bring shopper behavior to light in actionable ways.

Custom Research Tailored to Retail Goals

Every business is different – and so are its customers. That’s why we design full-service, custom market research studies that align with your specific objectives and challenges. Whether you’re shaping a new product, refining your retail strategy, or looking to enhance the customer experience, SIVO helps you ask the right questions through the lens of “why people really buy.”

Uncovering Functional, Emotional, and Social Jobs

We go beyond surface-level data to map out how customer motivations play out across the buyer journey in retail. Through in-depth interviews, shop-alongs, digital ethnography, and other methods, we explore what your customers are trying to achieve – and what may be standing in their way.

Translating Insights into Growth Strategy

Identifying customer jobs is just the beginning. At SIVO, we focus on making insights usable. That means delivering findings in a clear, connected way that drives retail innovation and informs product development, messaging, and near- and long-term strategy. We offer the tools, frameworks, and expertise needed to make the complex simple – revealing where and how brands can win.

End-to-End Support with Flexible Options

Our team includes insight professionals across every discipline – from moderators and data scientists, to strategists and field experts – meaning we can structure the right approach for any retail challenge. For teams in need of extra support, our On Demand Talent (ODT) solution can also supply experienced research professionals on a flexible basis.

At every step, our goal is to help you connect with people more meaningfully. With SIVO, jobs to be done becomes more than a framework – it becomes a driver of smarter decisions and stronger retail outcomes.

Summary

Understanding Jobs to Be Done in retail shifts the focus from products to people – and reveals the real motivations driving purchase behavior. From discovering functional needs to identifying emotional triggers and social drivers, JTBD allows retailers to better serve shoppers throughout their unique buyer journeys. When applied as part of a broader retail market research strategy, JTBD insights can transform how brands innovate, communicate, and grow.

In this guide, we explored the key types of customer jobs – functional, emotional, and social – and how they show up in everyday shopping scenarios. We looked at how JTBD translates into more impactful decisions in product development, marketing, and experience design. And importantly, we explained how SIVO empowers retail businesses to uncover and act on these insights through tailored consumer research solutions.

Whatever your challenge – launching, optimizing, or reinventing – the voices of your customers hold the answers. Jobs to Be Done helps make those answers clear and actionable.

Summary

Understanding Jobs to Be Done in retail shifts the focus from products to people – and reveals the real motivations driving purchase behavior. From discovering functional needs to identifying emotional triggers and social drivers, JTBD allows retailers to better serve shoppers throughout their unique buyer journeys. When applied as part of a broader retail market research strategy, JTBD insights can transform how brands innovate, communicate, and grow.

In this guide, we explored the key types of customer jobs – functional, emotional, and social – and how they show up in everyday shopping scenarios. We looked at how JTBD translates into more impactful decisions in product development, marketing, and experience design. And importantly, we explained how SIVO empowers retail businesses to uncover and act on these insights through tailored consumer research solutions.

Whatever your challenge – launching, optimizing, or reinventing – the voices of your customers hold the answers. Jobs to Be Done helps make those answers clear and actionable.

In this article

What Does 'Jobs to Be Done' Mean in Retail?
Why Shoppers Buy: Key Functional, Emotional, and Social Jobs
Examples of Jobs to Be Done in a Retail Setting
How JTBD Insights Help Retail Businesses Grow
How SIVO Helps Retailers Identify and Use Customer Jobs

In this article

What Does 'Jobs to Be Done' Mean in Retail?
Why Shoppers Buy: Key Functional, Emotional, and Social Jobs
Examples of Jobs to Be Done in a Retail Setting
How JTBD Insights Help Retail Businesses Grow
How SIVO Helps Retailers Identify and Use Customer Jobs

Last updated: Jun 04, 2025

Ready to uncover the real reasons your shoppers buy – and how to serve them better?

Ready to uncover the real reasons your shoppers buy – and how to serve them better?

Ready to uncover the real reasons your shoppers buy – and how to serve them better?

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