Supermarkets today offer a huge choice, making it very complex for shoppers to pick products. An average household buys around 350 different SKUs in a year but a maximum of only about 50 in each shopping trip.
To select these items from an average supermarket which stocks around 20,000 SKUs, takes a monumental effort from the shopper. It therefore makes sense to study and understand how shoppers shop. Only by doing so will you be able to formulate the best strategy to market to your customers.
Shoppers can be segmented into two distinct groups: pre-determined buyers and non-pre-determined buyers. Knowing which group the shoppers of your category fall into is crucial to marketing your products.
For example, in the bottled waters market, 80% of purchase decisions are made before the shopper reaches the store as consumers are extremely brand loyal. In this example, it is unlikely that any in-store activities would change the shopper’s mind, so advertising or other long-term strategies are likely to be most effective.
In comparison, within frozen food only 20% of consumers know what they will buy before they are at the shelf, so it makes sense to invest in in-store materials such as shelf signage or using gondola ends.
Pricing can be critical in some categories but relatively unimportant in others. In some markets a staggering 75% of people don’t know the price of a particular product. Equally, shoppers often struggle with recognising promotional activity. Between 20 and 40% of shoppers don’t know if a product is on promotion even when they are in-store. Here, the case for highlighting promotions on shelf is self-evident.
These are just a few of the shopper insights IRI can provide to help you better understand your customers.
For more information contact sales@infores.com