The kitchen appliances retailer seeks to survey its customers to gain insights into key consumer characteristics, including demographic profiles and lifestyle preferences. It is believed this will help the company better understand its target consumers and strengthen its position in the market. However, before outsourcing the data collection fieldwork, the retailer seeks clarification on data types, as outlined in the requirements below.

1. With reference to examples relevant to the retailer's information needs, discuss the differences between cross-sectional data and time series data and clearly state whether cross-sectional data, time series data or both types of data should be collected to gain insights into the demographic profile and lifestyle characteristics of its customers.