Last month, we discussed the different steps a shopper takes on the path to purchase, and failure to convert the shopper to the next stage is a lost opportunity. Understanding this shopper behaviour at each step is the first step to implementing effective changes to the retail environment in line with shopper expectations.
TNS recommends the Path to Purchase Toolkit™, which has a step-by-step process of diagnosing effectiveness of the existing retail setup, using insights from the shopper behavior research to create in-store solutions, testing these solutions in a live retail environment, on to monitoring the shopper response to changes in the retail environment.
In India, most marketing organizations and retail outfits are at the beginning of the first stage, understanding their shoppers and their needs on a purchase quest. The first step is to assess the effectiveness of their in-store space and marketing levers in helping make up a shopper’s mind.
The diagnosis has to start with introspection. The marketing objectives of the organization should be put on the table, and linked to the shopper research.
The commercial challenges leading to a retail and shopper study can be summed up in four generic questions:
1. How do we create a strategy to meet shopper expectations for each channel and shopping mission? (Getting more shoppers in the store and giving them a good shopping experience)
2. How do we optimize store design to improve category exposure? (Getting more shoppers into the category)
3. How do we convert more shoppers to purchasers? (increasing shopper conversion)
4. How do we increase our share of shopper selections? (increasing the market share)
Creating a strategy to meet shopper expectations for each channel and shopping mission
This strategy should yield the plan for a basic category management; provide inputs for Category vision, strategy and identification of growth drivers for the category, and development of channel strategy.
The retail and shopper study provides the answer by creating a pre-store context to the shopping trip. Some of the questions that the study needs to answer at this stage are:
How do shoppers define the category and what is the competitor set?
How should products be grouped and segmented to appeal to shoppers?
How do shoppers articulate features and benefits of different products within the competitor set?
What are the key factors driving store and channel choice?
Optimizing store design to improve category exposure
Optimizing store design should yield a shopper friendly store layout, identify best location for a category (and its adjacencies), and identifying the most effective locations for secondary displays.
A combination of observational research and quantitative exit interviews involve exploration of questions like:
What are the prevailing shopping pathways around the store?
What are the hot and cold zones in terms of traffic volume?
How many shoppers visit, shop and purchase within each aisle?
How successful are promotional gondolas at the end of aisles?
Converting more shoppers into category purchasers
This is where we get into the business end of a shopper research project. How to increase the percentage of shoppers to purchasers? The resulting insights have a direct effect on the sales of the category. These result in the development of detailed category management recommendations. TNS uses a three pronged approach, Shopnography to understand the motivations behind purchasing; Filming and in-store observations for recording shopper behavior at the fixture, and Aisle intercept interviews to fill in the gaps.
It answers questions like:
How easy is it for shoppers to find the category in store?
What is the level of conversion of purchase for the category?
What choices and decisions are made at the shelf?
What promotions influence purchasing behavior and decisions?
What are the purchase triggers and drivers?
Increasing the brand’s share of shopper selections
The final part of shopper research involves development of in-store strategies and tactics that drive brand performance. This includes detailed inputs on Merchandising, Assortment, Category Proposition, Promotions and Pricing, POS & In-Store Marketing, and Packaging
Advanced techniques like Eye-tracking (which track the movement of shopper eyeballs) are combined with Qualitative interviews to answer such questions like:
What are the visual cues shoppers are using to navigate the category?
Where should products be positioned to maximize visibility?
Which packaging stands out the most on the shelf?
What promotional activity is actually seen and what are shoppers’ perceptions of recalled promotions?
Aligning Marketer-Retailer partnership with Relevant Shopper Insights
The shopper information areas change as marketers become greater partners in retail layouts, and start designing effective shopper experiences. As a brand supplier to a bevy of brands in a supermarket, the marketer influence with the retail layouts is minimal. The important shopper insights at this beginner level of partnership are a keen understanding of category dynamics, and shopper missions.
As the marketer-retailer relationship moves to the stage where your brand leads the category as a Category Advisor or a Category Captain, one needs to understand shopper behavior in shopping the category as well as how shopper selects a product. At this stage, impact of in-store marketing levers for the category affects the brand sales directly. Hence a thorough understanding of the effectiveness of in-store levers like merchandising, promotions, packaging, and point of sales marketing is needed.
An ideal state is reached when the marketer is working with the retailer as a strategic partner, helping design the entire store layout for an effective shopper delight experience. Making the store easier to navigate through, making it easier for shoppers to find what they are looking for, studying and implementing category adjacencies in line with shopper expectations are some of the challenges at this level of marketer-retailer partnership.
Shopper needs should be the first and foremost focus of a retail store, and marketers at all levels of their relationships with retailers should facilitate this for mutual benefit. When the shopper is happy, everyone down the supply chain is eventually happy.
Next month, we discuss Tools and techniques of the trade used for shopper research
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