There’s been a lot of media huff and puff lately about the growth of online shopping in Australia. But the larger revolution – albeit quieter from a media point of view – is the change in shopper behaviour before they purchase, brought about by the ability to search online for product information before they even get to a store.

This has implications for the ‘path to purchase’ and for impulse purchases. As the degree of prestore search increases, so does the degree of planning.

I thought it worthwhile having a look at this and its implications for what stores will need to do in order to retain a role broader than being a mere transaction zone. The game SHOULD be much bigger than just range and layout, which are hygiene, navigation and deselection (narrowing down) factors, they’re not strategy. Once you’ve got your range and layout right, then what are you going to do to increase your category sales in an environment where shoppers are getting harder to influence?

THE PATH TO PURCHASE IS BLURRING

Traditionally the path to purchase was thought to be prestore and instore.

Prestore was when shoppers were making lists and were the passive subjects of advertising and promotional stimulus. Prestore was about consideration.

Instore was where the shopper was influenced on which of their considered products in a category they would buy. Instore was where the conversion happened.

Now the model is blurred. We have conversion happening prestore, and consideration happening instore.

The advent of mobile search and compare is creating consideration at shelf, not just conversion. An example is a shopper standing in a shoe store looking at training shoes. The shopper can whip out their mobile phone and price compare the shoe in the store they are in versus somewhere else. And if the somewhere else is nearby they may change their store choice. You’re then relying on your store staff service and sales capabilities to keep the shopper in your store. Or they might be looking at a shoe on shelf and if a staff member isn’t available, look up the product information online using their smartphone.

This isn’t just for the ‘few’ who have smartphones, by the way. Australia has one of the highest smartphone penetrations in the world, currently nearing 40%, and set to hit 60% by the end of 2012.

THE ‘FIRST MOMENT OF TRUTH’ – JUST ONE OF A SERIES OF TRUTH MOMENTS

P&G are largely credited with coining the expression the ‘First Moment of Truth’ to describe the shopper experience at shelf, where theoretically all the prestore and instore marketing and category management efforts come together to create a purchase decision at the shelf (or offlocation display).

Now we have not only a First Moment of Truth, but a Zero Moment of Truth (prestore) and a Second Moment of Truth (post store, when the purchased product is actually trialled).

Google’s recent report (April 2011) on the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT), whilst not expressing a new idea, has probably been the first to articulate it clearly.

It identifies the shift in shopper behaviour by differentiating advertising and promotional stimulus (considered passive) from online and mobile search (proactive).

The ZMOT is when a shopper actively searches for product information online. This may be from a retailer’s website, manufacturer’s website, product reviews, social media such as Facebook, and blogs (which are a form of organized word of mouth), among other things a search engine may dig up. ZMOT is everywhere because it can be accessed whilst mobile, and it’s not just for high involvement purchase categories like cars and entertainment systems. Shoppers are actively searching prestore in product categories ranging from plasticware to pet food.

The Second Moment of Truth (SMOT) – product trial, usage and experience – has an impact on ZMOT. Users of a product when they get it home may post a comment about the product (and their purchase experience) on a social media website, or a product review on a blog or website. These reviews then contribute to the next shopper’s ZMOT findings.  In a recent report from IBM it was stated that a shopper is more likely to believe a review from a stranger than what a retailer or manufacturer says about a product. This demonstrates the need/role for informal product advocates and ambassadors (rather than paid celebrity sponsors).

Whilst marketers can’t control what shoppers post for SMOT, smart marketers in manufacturing can use ZMOT tools – including offers – to mitigate retailer clean store policies.

So now we have a model where advertising stimulus and promotions (Stimulus) may be prestore or instore. The ZMOT is everywhere (accessed prestore, instore, in transit) as is the SMOT. The First Moment of Truth may now be online, or in bricks and mortar stores, or multichannel (eg order online, pick up instore or order instore, have delivered to your home).

I haven’t figured out how to draw this yet in a pretty diagram. Stay tuned. It’ll probably look like one of those communication network diagrams like a cloud with lots of lines where everything connects to everything else.

THE DEGREE OF PLANNING IS INCREASING

The more ZMOT proactive product search that occurs, the greater the degree of pre-store product planning.

Depending on the channel, category and trip type, there may be a lot or a little impulse. On average in Australia across a number of shopper research projects in the past few years, we’ve found that most categories in grocery are planned down to product or brand level between 60% and 70%. That is within a specific category.

But this doesn’t mean you can’t get switch, upgrade or impulse instore, or that a shopper doesn’t buy other categories/products on impulse. We know that around 80% of shoppers deviate from (add to) their grocery shopping list once instore. That is, they come in for 4 things totaling $20 and wander out $50 and 8 items later.

What it does mean is that you need to work harder to interrupt them within a given category.

Interestingly, the recent Coles and Woolworths smartphone apps have a number of functions that will actually increase the degree of planning (My List, My Specials, where items are located in my store so I can find them faster etc) with fewer of the apps to increase browse time/impulse/engagement (recipe finders being the main one at this point).

In an environment where retailers have trained shoppers to expect low prices as the cost of entry and promotional strategies have simply shifted the majority of a category’s sales to on promotion (and deflated category value in the process), the crying need instore is for INTERRUPTION. Shoppers want to discover, be surprised, delighted, and informed … this requires engagement and theatre.

THE NEED TO PLAY TO EMOTIONAL, NOT JUST RATIONAL

In ‘The Buying Brain’, Dr AK Pradeep emphasizes that 95% of human decision making is unconscious and emotional not subconscious and rational. He outlines 7 shopper experience dimensions. In no particular order, these are Information, Interaction, Entertainment, Community, Education, Simplicity, and Self Worth. These serve as a useful ‘retail health’ scorecard for a brand or category.

It’s evident from this list that grocery retailing only really talks to simplicity (ease of shop) at the moment, with perhaps some bits of information and some Community (charity) activities. But supermarkets have work to do on the interaction, entertainment, education and self worth dimensions.

When you look at the traditional point of purchase drivers (range, space & layout, visibility & display, price, promotion and persuasion) there are 3 that are rational (range, space, price) and 3 that are more emotional (display/theatre, promotion, persuasion).

Clean store policies are effectively stripping the emotion out of a shopping trip that for many is already a grudge trip or considered a chore.

When we run shopper research typically the retailers want to understand what their range and layout should be, and most of what shoppers want is not just a layout that makes sense but typically category information, samples, tastings and demonstrations. They want things that will help them with solutions and keep them entertained.

Interruption and engagement – the levers to pull for impulse sales and category growth – will come from more theatre; better thought through relevant/tailored/interactive promotions that pull levers other than price, and from personalized service.

In the brave new world of shopper-controlled retailing, the retailers who retain relevance will be those who can interrupt, surprise and delight by playing to emotions.

On the face of it, the New Zealand supermarket channel looks similar to the Australian one: a highly consolidated market with two big players who have the vast majority share between them.  But in NZ each of the supermarket retail groups are rowing their own boats, with mixed results.

Below we overview the NZ grocery market, what each of the major players is doing, and some two-way lessons from across the ditch.

WHO’S WHO IN THE NZ ZOO?

The NZ grocery channel is split roughly 50/50 between Progressive Enterprises Limited (locally known as Progs or PEL) and Foodstuffs (locally known as FS or Foodies).

Progressive, owned by Woolworths Australia, have traditionally had 3 retail badges with around 170 stores in total across Foodtown, Woolworths, and Countdown outlets. All PEL outlets are in throes, between 2011 and early 2013, of being rebadged as Countdown utilising the Woolworths green ‘apple peel’ logo and a store fitout similar to WW 2010 store formats.

Foodstuffs are proudly 100% NZ owned and this is a point of difference they flog hard. Foodstuffs have a number of supermarket retail banners: New World (135 outlets), Pak & Save (45 outlets), 4Square (280 outlets, skewing regional) as well as a couple of smaller regional banners with only a few stores (Shoprite, Write Food) and a chain of corner mixed business stores (‘dairies’ in the local parlance) numbering around 145 outlets.

HOW DO THEY COMPARE?

In the NZ market, there is not an overt comparison on price. Foodstuffs’ Pak & Save is renowned as a lowest-cost-operator (like an Aldi or Costco), but the two flagships of Countdown and New World compete head to head for shopper loyalty, albeit in different ways.

Below is a comparison table we have pulled together across a number of aspects for the two major players for their flagship banners (Countdown and New World, respectively).

HOW ARE THEY EXECUTING? EXAMPLE PROGRAMS

Countdown have recently instituted both Combo deals (some are true solutions such as fish and chips, some are multibuys by another name, as the attached photos demonstrate) and in the past few weeks launched Feed Your Family for Under $14, using shopper-submitted recipes in a form of competition.  The Masterchef program has been supported instore with recipe cards but also with specific ‘recipe bays’ featuring total meal solutions in one chiller compiled by 2010 Masterchef winner Brett McGregor.

New World have been using the ‘Clever Baskets’ mascot as a ‘discount price special’ ticketing visual shortcut. From a meals point of view, they offer pre-packed cross-category lunch solutions in chilled barges instore, and out of store run a meals TV program called  ‘World Kitchen on TV3’.

OPPORTUNITIES AND LEARNINGS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE DITCH

Although Australian supermarket retailers have only in the past 18 months started to employ occasion based solutions such as Feed the Family, these types of bundled programs are even newer in NZ.

Kiwi manufacturers are starting to employ simpler and clearer program messaging on POS, which is useful when the NZ supermarket retailer majors apply a clean store policy even more stringent than that in force in Australia. Very few POS communication pieces are allowed. This is limiting shoppers’ experience, and also renders less effective promotional mechanics. For example if you only allow on-pack promotions, destination categories with high household penetration levels won’t actually see much of an increase during promotions because the shopper was already going to put the category or item in the basket. These types of categories really require AWOP or frequency based activations. So an opportunity here is to allow more flexibility for different promotional mechanics that require activation away from the main shelf as well as at it.

Australian supermarket retailers could take a cue from NZ supermarket retailers (eg the Clever Baskets tags) and cut down the number of price specials, and therefore specials tickets, in each category at any one time, to make the category easier to ‘read’ for shoppers.

Stores on both sides of the ditch could be made more engaging with more instore theatre … particularly in fresh food, where ‘theatre’ is even more lacking in NZ (which doesn’t have specialist fruit & veg shops or butchers) than Australia. We know that the vast majority of shopping decisions are made emotionally. Dr AK Pradeep in ‘The Buying Brain’ refers to 7 dimensions of shopper experience, being Information, Interaction, Entertainment, Community, Education, Simplicity, and Self Worth. Yet most Australian and NZ supermarkets (Coles renewal stores excepted, perhaps) only really play to Simplicity, and perhaps a bit of Information and maybe Community (IGA, Foodstuffs). Entertainment and Interaction are currently largely missing.

The instore limitations have an upside however, and that is the NZ exploration of the digital space, with trial of different pre-store mediums (including QR response activations) high on the agenda.

All in all, it feels like NZ can learn from Australian meal solutions executions, and Australia should keep an eye on what NZ supermarkets are doing online and manufacturers do in the digital space.

It will be interesting to observe how the NZ and Australian grocery markets evolve over time, given their similarities and differences.

Working within the Shopper Marketing discipline we are often asked for the purchase decision hierarchy (PDH), consumer decision tree (CDT) or shopper decision tree (SDT) for a particular category. This raises a number of questions… Are they the same thing? Is there just one per category? What implications and applications do they have for retailers and manufacturers?

PDH, CDT or SDT?

The terms PDH, CDT and SDT are often interchanged and typically thought of as the same thing. But are they? As the name indicates the CDT is from the perspective of the consumer rather than the shopper. Whereas, the focus of the PDH or SDT, is the shopper.

Building brand equity in the mind of the consumer and creating consumer demand is the domain of the marketing department within a supplier or manufacturer business. They create demand for brands, give consumers a reason to believe that their brand has a unique point of difference and reason for being. This does not mean that the shopper is inconsequential to a marketer; it just provides another dimension for them to consider. Shoppers are the people who are making the decision at the point of purchase. They make the ultimate decision as to what goes into the trolley or basket. They are the ones navigating the shelf and selecting from the range presented. Therefore, it makes more sense, from a retail execution point of view to consider purchase decision hierarchies (otherwise known as shopper decision trees) rather than a consumer decision tree.

ONE PER CATEGORY?

So, is there just one per category? It is highly unlikely that there is. In our experience, there are different shopper segments that exist within a category and for each of these segments there is a different focus or priority. They may be price sensitive which means price will be higher on their PDH. They may be highly visual, meaning packaging and brand becomes key in their decision making process. Others could be looking for functionality and convenience so packaging functionality, such as the ability to reseal or the contents being individually wrapped, may influence their decision. See below for a simplified example of how this might work for a particular category.

The segments that exist are likely to vary by category so the key is to understand your shoppers and what is important to them. Quantifying the segments will allow you to understand not just how many of each shopper type there are but more importantly the value they represent to the category. Understanding the number and the value they represent will give you a picture of the most dominant PDH which will give you something solid to work with.

Purchase decision hierarchies are not usually as simple as those shown above. There are often a number of lenses or influences that come into play before the shopper reaches the store or the shelf. These variables again will vary by category but could include anything from the number of people they are buying for, their level of involvement with the category, to health concerns or even the mood the shopper is in. These lenses or influences can be represented above the hierarchy to demonstrate other considerations that influence the decision prior to the shelf. They can be shown as per the example below:

What this demonstrates is that purchase decision hierarchies can be more complicated that first anticipated. It isn’t typically as simple as a ladder with four variables, there are lenses, influences and shopper segments to take into consideration but once you unlock the puzzle it can be a powerful tool for both retailers and manufacturers…but not just as the basis for shelf layouts. PDH have impacts on packaging, marketing communications, point of sale, etc which we will examine now.

IMPLICATIONS AND APPLICATIONS

So, how can PDHs be used? Understanding shopper segments, and their value will help you to establish a dominant PDH, however it will never be a case of one size fits all. PDHs have different implications and applications for retailers and manufacturers but in both cases they present opportunities for development of the category and the brands and products that make up the category.

The most common application for a PDH is within shelf management and the development of shelf layouts. That said, within some categories it can be dangerous to lay out a category to represent a literal translation of the PDH as this can make the category difficult for shoppers to navigate and rather than assisting the decision making process will only act to confuse shoppers.

It is important when developing a shelf layout to understand not only the decision-making process but also the beacons and navigation aids that shoppers use to visually segment the category and make sense of the shelf. In a category we examined recently functionality was the highest variable on the PDH however shoppers navigated the category by brand. Where the shelf was laid out according to functionality, shoppers found it difficult to find what they were looking for. Rather, their preference was for brand blocking which, in this case meant colour blocking, and aided navigation. From there they would look for the functionality of each of the products within the brand ranges.

Another valuable outcome of understanding the PDH for retailers is the opportunity that arises for store clustering. Understanding shopper segments and catering to these segments through layouts and ranging developed according to the variables prioritised within their PDH can lead to category growth, increased profitability and greater shopper satisfaction.

Other opportunities come from understanding the PDH to develop category navigation aids and point of sale which may help to enhance the shopper experience.

From a manufacturer point of view, the application of the PDH is even more diverse. Understanding how different shopper segments make their shopping decisions can assist with new product development, packaging design and brand messaging. Uncovering a segment that is, for example, more visual than price sensitive may provide an opportunity for a premium offering with greater focus on stimulating the senses rather than competing on price.

It can also help to understand the elements of packaging requiring increased emphasis and those that may be dialed down. Strong communication of a variable that is high on the PDH can act to differentiate one brand from another, strengthening the brands reason for being and giving it a unique point of difference, in turn aiding value growth as price potentially becomes less important.

Purchase decision hierarchies can often be more complex than they appear on the surface, however, once unlocked can be a very powerful tool for retailers and manufacturers alike. They are even more powerful when shopper segments can be identified, quantified and a value attached to each segment. Retailers and manufacturers who can harness this information to develop ranges, layouts, products and communications which are tailored to these segments will drive category growth and value.

Until next time!

Last article Alison discussed the role of price based on shopping trip types by channel and within convenience channel segments.

Here we’re going to take the same approach to discuss the opportunities for year-round general merchandise and personal care in the convenience channel.

WHAT ARE YOU, OR CAN YOU, BE KNOWN FOR?

What you range needs to be driven by why shoppers visit you. Last time we outlined that convenience channel shopping trip types are largely for fuel, destination (snack, beverage, newspaper), services (eg ATM, trailer hire, gas bottle refills), entertaining, and quick meal.

Within destination, there’s a subset of ‘run out/emergency/distress’ type items that include personal care categories like feminine hygiene and toilet paper.

Where do general merchandise and personal care sit within the trip types? Let’s hypothesise what categories by trip type might look like.

It should be evident from the above there are cross category bundling opportunities to talk to a specific trip type. Particularly with entertaining, you have the opportunity to be a one-stop shop.

Which trips apply to you will depend on your channel segment. Obviously the travelling ones apply more to roadhouses and outbound major arterial road sites in outer suburbs.

Identify the trip types that are either unique or drive significant footfall to your store type and make them work in your favour. Look for opportunities to create bundled cross-category offers that compliment these trip types and increase basket size.

Pick the categories that make the most sense for your channel segment based on shopping trip types and consumption occasions.

For a Local outlet that would likely be Entertaining and Services related categories. For a Minimart it would be more meal components. For Arterial and Roadhouse it’s travelling related.

The role of these categories is profit generating, rather than stock turn.

HOW DO YOU BECOME KNOWN FOR SOMETHING ELSE?

Over time, ‘$2 shops’ have become known for being the places you can get ‘weird stuff’ (party costumes, fairy lights, cheap heaters and fans, cheap homewares if you’re moving house) that you can’t get in mass merchants or hardware. Ultimately they play to several specific occasions: party, moving house, and gifting.

Even if you pick the right categories to range for your channel segment, store type and location, there’s no point in merely ranging something and expecting it to move off the shelf by itself. You’ll need to promote it. (7Eleven have been doing this with their slurpee offer both outside of store with advertising and on-site using their roadside fuel signs, BP did a similar thing with Wild Bean cafes).

For local and minimart stores you can do this with direct marketing campaigns (ie letterbox drops, email lists) for your immediate catchment area. For Arterial and Roadhouse outlets it’s based around external signage. And then there’s above-the-line (eg TV, radio, print, digital/online media) … which is expensive and therefore a longer term drip-feed strategy.

Playing to specific occasions, trip types and needs would give Convenience a reason for being outside of fuel and drink/snack multibuys.

Feels like an opportunity for broader industry based, or at least retail banner based, campaigns to create awareness around reasons to visit convenience … and you’ll sell more general merchandise items at a profit!

Following on from our Rise to the Occasion article last year, about occasion based shopper marketing opportunities, let’s take a look at the opportunities winter presents.

HIBERNATION BEHAVIOUR

People are more likely to stay in during the winter – even in subtropical towns like Sydney and Brisbane – because they don’t want to venture out ‘in the cold and rain’. Unless they’re going to the snow. This is why restaurant patronage generally drops during the winter … people ‘go out’ and socialise in the summer and ‘stay in’ during the winter.

So how can you leverage these natural behaviours?

Play to the ‘quiet night in’, particularly for girls – flannelette pyjamas, DVDs and popcorn. As a bundle. Or you could go one step further and do what the breast cancer guys have done by creating a group ‘girls’ night in’, book-club style with champagne.

For mass merchants and discount department stores it’s all about ‘rug up’ items for indoors – blankets, throw rugs, heaters, warm pyjamas (again). And slippers. And of course you’d bundle it all up as a ‘stay warm this winter’ deal.

WINTER WARMERS

So here we’re talking about Dinner Tonight shopping trips, but for heavier and heartier fare.

Stews mean you can do bundles of recipe ingredients. Heavier pasta types such as gnocchi can also be bundled with other ingredients.

And it’s soup season, as well as pudding style ‘hot’ desserts. So there’s a 3-course meal suggestion that will drive AWOP – soup, stew and pudding.

If summer is synonymous with BBQs, what dining/entertaining occasion can we create or leverage for winter? The Great Sunday Roast? Traditionally the Sunday Roast (or baked dinner, depending on what state you come from) was family oriented, but what’s to stop it being promoted as a big night in with friends, thereby tapping into Entertaining shopping trips?

In liquor, it’s all about dark spirits – bourbon, scotch, dark rum. And red wine, to go with those Sunday Roasts. Stretching it a bit, you could include fortifieds such as port and sherry (which aren’t just gifts for Grandpa).

SNOW HOLIDAYS

This is all about the après-ski back in the chalet … a form of entertaining as the nature of ski and snow trips tends to be just as much social and friends as it is family.

Stocking up and entertaining in the ski chalet sense is about alcohol … red wine (and bottle openers), ingredients for gluhwein, sparkling/champagne as well as cheese/dips/pates etc – opportunities for cross-channel bundles here.

If you’re a mass merchant or specialty retailer the snow holiday opportunity revolves around snow and ski gear rather than food. Apparel, boards, poles etc. Plus some of the ‘rug up’ items discussed in Hibernation. You could get greater spend by bundling it all together as a series of package deals – apparel deals, gear deals.

JUNE LONG WEEKEND

Some hardy souls in this country still go camping in winter (generally coastal destinations where it’s slightly more temperate).

Camping trips generally involve more cooking for oneself than do snow holidays (where people eat out more). So there’s an opportunity here to package up a series of meals for several days of camping … the BBQ meal, the burgers and hot dogs meal, the roast meal (again!) … including packaged desserts (ie frozens).

Similarly to the snow holidays, for mass merchants and specialty retailers the opportunity is around bundling camping gear. Everything from eskies to travel rugs to thermos to tents. And entertainment – games for the kids to play in the back of the car, board games for the adults.

SNIFFLING AND SNUFFLING

Let’s not forget that winter is also ‘cold season’. Sales of tissues, sinus and cold/flu treatments go up, an opportunity for a ‘cold and flu family bundle’ or similar.

People not only get colds in winter, they generally feel more sorry for themselves and therefore get more massages and remedial therapies – in the summer people have too many fun things on, and are too busy and social to be sick!

So the principles are to look at the natural occasions the season provides, and create bundles for the whole occasion, rather than just promoting single items.

And then there are all the instore ‘theatre’ opportunities – snowflakes, log fires etc -  that these winter occasions provide …

Walking into the Kmart store at Broadway in Sydney the first thing you observe is a far tidier store than the average mass merchant, the shelves are stacked neatly and the pallet displays are well merchandised with clear signage to help you navigate the store. As part of the repositioning, Kmart Broadway trialled 24hr/7 day trading but has since reduced the opening hours to 8am till midnight each day. Less than 24/7 but more then I would have expected.

But are the exceeding expectation with regard to price? Well if a $9 toaster, $10 fan or $49 microwave are anything to go by there has been a definite shift in pricing for average household items. Kmart have introduced a generic brand called Homemaker offering a wide range of household items. The obvious next question has to be around the quality of such cheap items and therefore the true value for money but for the average student or family looking to set up a new home or replace household items they do offer a low-cost alternative.

Another thing which is evident is the Kmart pricing strategy which sees a large proportion of the products in store being offered at round dollar prices…$5, $8, $15, $49, etc…so there is now no need for loose change.

It is important to note that the shift in perception of Kmart as a retailer driven by value is being delivered through own-brand products. Branded products or goods such as CDs, DVDs and branded toys, for which there is not a generic substitute, are not as cheap as other products in-store, and they are certainly not the cheapest in the market for these products either, but overall my perception of Kmart has definitely changed. So, if you haven’t visited a Kmart store in a while…expect change.

THE SHOPPER JOURNEY TO THE SHOPPING CENTRE

Whilst the number of Shoppers visiting a Shopping Centre in small groups as a pure leisure outing is increasing, the majority of Shopper trips to the Shopping Centre are still destination based.  That is, the Shopper is going for a specific purpose or item, or set of purposes and items.

However, they’re also open to influence – nearly 90% of Shoppers deviate (add to) their shopping list, regardless of whether the list is on paper on in their heads.  So as a Centre based retailer you have a good opportunity to ‘interrupt’ them once they arrive at the centre, with ‘while I’m here’ type reminders. More about how to attract that impulse sale a little later.

First and foremost however, you need to ensure that you get on their destination shopping list – to be the reason they’re going to the Shopping Centre in the first place.

Below is a starter list of ‘habits’ of effective Shopping Centre retailers in making themselves retail destinations vs their competitors.

HABIT #1: LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION!

Be in the right place to optimise walk past traffic. What we are talking about is the real estate game, and having your store in the right (read logical) location for your categories as well as the best location for Shopper traffic.

It’s all about footfall. You need to be in the main traffic flow areas. These include areas near carparks, entrances and exits as well as main traffic flow paths to public transport. For example changing the location of the bus terminal due to centre refurbishments or extensions can cause major declines in what was once a thriving business as people just don’t walk past anymore, certainly not the sheer volume there once was.

The rule of proximity applies. Stores located near a major or mini major (department stores, supermarkets, major chains with large store footprints) get more traffic, period. The average supermarket would have around 35-40,000 customers each week and almost every household shops there….think about it.

Be in a precinct.  For example, if you’re a fashion store you need to be in a fashion precinct or fashion store cluster.  Competition actually DRAWS traffic.  You’re better off being right next door to immediate competitors than away from them, as a clutch of stores all with a similar offer – eg shoes – become a shopping destination for that type of item.  It’s no good being a shoe store and being located near all the services like banks and road traffic authorities.

You might not be able to influence your existing store position, but if your lease is about to expire or the centre is about to undergo renovations you should use this as an opportunity to review your store location in the centre. Get a hold of their new centre floorplans and identify your ideal location based on main traffic flows, proximity, and precincts.

HABIT #2: MAKE YOUR STORE A DESTINATION

Reduce reliance on impulse and browsing foot traffic.  Ensure your store is a destination for the Shopper for their shopping occasion – that they have already decided to visit your store for a specific purpose BEFORE they even set foot in the Shopping Centre.

The rest of this article is devoted to ways to do this.

HABIT #3 (and 4, 5, 6, and 7…): CREATE A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH SHOPPING CENTRE MANAGEMENT

Your absolute first port of call should be meet and get to know the Shopping Centre’s Retail and Marketing teams, and make sure THEY know YOU. Get involved in any offer and voucher runs they may be doing. Support events they might run such as  fashion parades.  Get involved in campaigns they are planning.  The more you proactively offer, the more preferential and supportive treatment you will receive and the more you will be their first port of call when they are planning an activity.  It might sound obvious, but it’s amazing how many retailers don’t make the effort. And it doesn’t cost much. (And might even get you a better deal on your Shopping Centre media and advertising).

Little things mean a lot. Giveaways work wonders. If your centre has hubs – eg fashion hubs, kids hub, food hub – make sure you’re there with a goodie bag of offers and small trinkets.

Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Get involved with the Shopping Centre’s giftcard program.  Shopping Centre management LOVE retailers who help with their centre giftcard programs and it’s cost effective to be involved.  Come up with a prize, gift with purchase, coupon or other offer – it doesn’t have to be big or expensive.

HABIT #4: INVOLVEMENT IN CENTRE MANAGEMENT MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

Ensure you have a presence and better yet, an offer, in major gift guides the centre puts out.  You may need to provide a couple of hundred dollars’ worth of stock for photo shoots, or it might cost you a few hundred bucks in redemptions of promo offers, but the traffic it drives to your store and the incremental sales resulting pay for it ten times over. This is increasingly important with new season fashion (clothing AND housewares) launches for example, most Centres publish glossy colour magazines as free Shopper give aways, find out the publishing dates and get involved.

Become a consistent presence in any ongoing or long-running campaigns the centre may have, both with Shopping Centre media and online (see below).

HABIT #5: SHOPPING CENTRE MERCHANDISING AND ADVERTISING

Options may include one or more of billboards and posters, banners, kiosks, toilet media, floor media, car park media, Shopping Centre entrance media. These options can be expensive, but is worth doing when launching your store or when your store has a major seasonal promotional theme running. You can amortize the cost by offering the centre a bundled deal to take up more than one media type for the duration of the promotion.

Shopping Centre media and advertising for retailers is best approached on a centre by centre basis – doing a total media package per centre – rather than on a most-centres-for-least-cost reach and frequency type basis. But understanding how this option could fit as part of your total promotional/ marketing spend is critical.

HABIT #6: ONLINE SHOPPING CENTRE PRESENCE

Most Shopping Centres have a loyal Shopper on line data base that can be accessed by their retail tenants with special offers or seasonal promotions. This will give you and your business, via your Shopping Centre data base, the all important 1:1 contact with potential customers. These can be Brand driven, category driven or even Service driven – how about promoting that new staff member with extensive experience in kids clothing or shoe fitting?

Get involved in online campaigns offered by your centre or centre group. Because Shopping Centre trips are fairly frequent, Shoppers use centre websites to check out what’s coming up at their ‘local’. By having a presence on your Shopping Centre’s website you are more likely to turn your store into a destination – rather than relying on walk past traffic – next time Shoppers who have browsed the centre’s website visit the centre. Take out banner and click-through ads. Ensure you have online specific offers running that they can redeem when next in the centre (this will also help give you – and Shopping Centre management – an idea of how effective their website is).

HABIT #7: EXTEND YOUR RETAIL SPACE

An additional store space – kiosk style – within eyeline of your current store can double your sales, particularly in key retail periods like Christmas where your core store may be too crowded to fit all potential Shoppers.

Yes you’ll need to pay additional rent, but you can mitigate this cost by offering the centre’s management a package deal on the combined rent.

Pop up stores have been wildly successful overseas and some Centres offer these temporary options to tenants for short periods of time (– these are not the sock retailers that seem to appear in major traffic flow pathways!). Usually implemented as a ‘stunt’ that fits with an overall marketing program, these can sometimes be attractive to your supplier base to launch a new range of products or a new service. Banks are using this as a way of extending their reach.

HABIT #8: EVOLVE YOUR OFFER

Oddly enough, the major retailers that created the furor late last year around the growth of internet sales effecting their business, have now “opened” their own on-line retail offer, one from a virtual shop front in Asia. Surely all of that fuss last year wasn’t to cover up the fact that they had strategically and financially underinvested in the growth options available for their business. No way!

So what is the salutary lesson to us all with this example? Understand that your Shopper’s wants and needs for products and services evolve as much as the options that are available to communicate with them – iphone apps, social media options and direct marketing to name a few.And you need to understand which applications are best to attract and stick Shoppers to your business.

HABIT #9: VISUAL MERCHANDISING

The front of your store is what potential Shoppers see first so why not treat it as the critically important element that it is? Initial impressions count, either good or bad – windows, the entrance path and internal visibility construct that all important initial impression of the front of your store.

Regular Shoppers visit Shopping Centres every 2-3 days and if your front of store treatment does not get a positive response, why leave it unchanged? Two week turnarounds are common for front of store window treatment, but theming the content is also important. Planning your front of store treatment to align with the key events on your promotional calendar is fundamental for any retailer. If you need help to understand or implement, ask an expert to advise you on your best options. Most Centres have experts available who can provide advice free of charge.

Basic housekeeping underpins great Visual Merchandising. If your store looks messy and disorganized why would a Shopper even be attracted to enter and look at what you are offering?

Look at Osh Kosh or Country Road for lessons in managing your VM messages from the front window right through to the fixture, especially with new seasons merchandise all combined to create a fantastic story.

And they illustrate great solutions to their Shoppers which is the intention.

HABIT#10: IN STORE MARKETING

How is your business ‘categorized’ in store? Does it align to a logical sequence and flow? Then, do the key messages and call to action prompts subtly sell your offer?

What ticket types do you use? Tickets for ‘New Line’, “Sale or “Special” and “clearance” should be in every retailer’s toolkit, and probably not many more. Be disciplined about their use. For example ‘Sale’ should be exactly for that and used strategically 2-3 times per year. Shoppers see through permanent Sale events and it amazes me to see how many retailers cycle the same ‘Sale’ offer each week and wonder why there is little Shopper interest.

‘Clearance’ should be used to clear old stock with depth of mark down that ensures quick movement.

The old adage “the first mark down is the best mark down” still rings true. If a line is a dog and has not sold at the regular price, cut it hard and sell it out. Small 10-20% off will not clear a dud buy.

‘New Line’ or just ‘New’ on a product is a powerful message for fashionistas and can create a sale, and not just to introduce new seasons clothing but can be extended to any product in any category.

And now for HABIT #11……DO SOMETHING….ANYTHING!

It amazes me to see Centre based Retailers wondering where their business went. If your business is not growing, or declining, you have a responsibility to do something – anything is better than nothing (which has got you to where you are in the first place)

• Who have you talked to you about your business? Your accountant reports on numbers and is not a retailer by trade. Talk to your Centre Retail management, see what they can offer by way of supporting activity or providing an experienced retail expert to advise you on a few options to consider.
• Have you asked your Shoppers? Ask them, you may be surprised.
• How are the other tenants around you performing?
• Is your decline in customer numbers or in spend, or both?
• Has the competitive set changed in the Centre?
• Have you changed or not changed your range or offer?
• How old is your fit out?
• How shop blind have you actually become as the landscape slowly and subtly changes…..but you haven’t??

Most Shopping Centres have independent retail expert consultants who can provide independent advice on alternatives to grow your business. Ultimately the decision is yours, but talking to and getting advice for someone who has been there/ done that may help you either save your business or get you back on the path to growth.

To sum up, your approach needs to be both internal and external – to cover the bases with both traditional retail media, new media options, your overall initial Shopper front of Store impression and with the Shopping Centre management for incremental opportunities to increase your destination Shopper footfall and thus your sales.

]]> http://shop-ability.com.au/2011/the-10-1-habits-of-highly-effective-shopping-centre-retailers/feed/ 0 http://shop-ability.com.au/2011/promotions-effectiveness-%e2%80%93-making-sense-of-the-black-box/ http://shop-ability.com.au/2011/promotions-effectiveness-%e2%80%93-making-sense-of-the-black-box/#comments Tue, 26 Apr 2011 02:09:17 +0000 lee /?p=2246 Read More >]]> Sales and ROI aren’t the only two measures of a promotion’s success, argues Norrelle Goldring, for Retail World Magazine.

The 2010 POPAI/ShopAbility Shopper Marketing Industry Benchmark Study (currently underway again for 2011) highlighted the lack of understanding of how to measure promotional activities.

Of those who were measuring (and a fair portion weren’t), the majority way that most were measuring was sales increase and return on investment (ROI). But that’s only part of the story … that’s measuring a what, without understanding the why or impacting factors.

Let’s have a look at some other things you can measure to really understand the success (or lack thereof) of your promotion.

DETERMINE WHAT YOUR PROMOTION IS DESIGNED TO DO UPFRONT

Sounds obvious, but ‘GIGO’ (garbage in, garbage out) applies. Get clear on your objectives upfront. You might want to increase sales by getting trial or increasing awareness, but what are the levers for achieving this?

Who is your promotion designed to attract?

• Loyal brand buyers (AWOP/frequency based)
• Occasional buyers (frequency based)
• New consumers (trial based)

What shopper behaviours do you want your promotion to impact? Eg:

• Frequency
• AWOP
• Increase spend
• Tria
• Brand switch
• Build loyalty
• Penetration
• Awareness

What are your retail objectives? Eg:

• Drive traffic
• Increase frequency
• Increase spend
• Improve basket penetration.

OUTPUTS VS IMPACT & INFLUENCE VS OUTCOMES

Most measurement focus is currently on outcomes (the sales result). However to understand the sales result in context you need to understand what and how much was executed (the outputs), and what impact and influence the promotion and its elements had on shoppers and their behaviours.

OUTPUTS

Execution provides the context for the scope and effort put into the promotion. Output measures include things like:

• Number of stores executing the promotion
• Number of displays achieved
• Support mechanism employed eg shelf ticketing, advertising, catalogue, mobile/text marketing, social media, POS, news/PR.

IMPACTS

What actually happened? A number of angles to consider here.

Shopper Behaviour:

• Frequency/IPI, AWOP, traffic, spend, basket penetration, basket value
• Time of day and day of week purchase shifts
• Product/brand switch
• What did they actually notice/which execution elements influenced them?

Consumer/Brand:

• Brand health measures up/down (yes you might have sold more, but particularly if at deep discount what impact did it have on the brand?)
• Price point perceptions for the brand (constant promotion at discount price point resets price benchmarks in shoppers’ heads, leading to deflation)
• Changes in consumption (short and medium term)

Market:

• Manufacturer/brand share shifts within category
• Cannibalisation of other products, brands, category segments (this is a function of high levels of substitutability/low brand loyalty)

Store & Trade:

• Out of stocks
• Level of instore support received (ie distribution, displays)
• Retailer impact
• Supplier impact
• Operation Distribution.

OUTCOMES

What difference did the promotion make to our numbers? Both sales and profitability measures apply here.

Sales measures:

• Sales vol and val uplift/decline – brand, category
• Baseline vs sales on promo – incremental sales generated
• Category growth volume/value
• Residual sales level post promotion (is it higher or lower than pre-promotion? Lower would indicate you’ve pulled sales forward)

Profitability:

• Product/brand/category profitability during promotion
• ROI/payback based on inputs (execution): to the brand/manufacturer, to the retailer
• Cost effectiveness compared to other promotions and activity types.

Having selected your measures from the above, when compiling promotion analysis you would then provide recommendations on whether the activity is worth running again, and if so what elements would need to be changed for an improved result.

While all the above is quite a list and might appear to make things look more complex, actually it’s designed for clarity. If you understand what you did and what impacts it had you’re in a better position to understand the financial outcomes and therefore the promotion’s overall effectiveness.

So far in this series we have covered four different types of pharmacies:

1. Shopping Centre Pharmacies – those located in major centres such as Westfield, Stockland, Centro
2. Community Pharmacies – smaller local pharmacies located in strips and small village shopping centres
3. Inner City Pharmacies – small stores in transit locations in the inner city
4. One Stop Shop Pharmacies – large footprint stores in suburban areas that are not Discounters per se.

Our fifth and final discussion is about Discount Pharmacies – that is, pharmacies that promote range breadth and particularly price as their primary draw card above all other factors. Chains such as Chemist Warehouse and Priceline fall in to this category.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF A DISCOUNTER

You’re a ‘Discount Pharmacy’ if you:

• Have price referenced in your store title/ banner name and your front of store signage is all about price
• Large store footprint with dispensary and multiple checkouts
• Loss leaders / deep discount price promotions at front of store to draw traffic
• Heavy focus on specials tickets throughout the store
• Also big catalogue focus – catalogues at front of store, catalogue special tickets throughout store
• Promote a lot of larger items and bulk packs.

WHY SHOPPERS VISIT YOU

Your shoppers are often coming for a planned stock up shop – over the counter, vitamins, beauty, personal care etc – which may be based on catalogue.

Whilst shoppers still come to you for scripts, this is not as important a factor as in other pharmacy types (like small traditional community pharmacies where script is king). Front of store is more important and a greater percentage of sales in this channel segment than in other pharmacy types.

Some shoppers see you as a health and beauty supermarket (particularly if you’re Priceline), or an alternative to the supermarket for non-food items and may shop ‘rest of store’ only.

You’ve got no issue in getting them to buy front of store categories, your opportunity is in getting them to increase spend, AWOP and frequency. (And the frequency one can be interesting if you’re mostly promoting bulk packs that mean pantry stocking and therefore a deferred sale next time).

WHO YOUR SHOPPERS ARE LIKELY TO BE

This tends to vary a little by banner group. Priceline attracts younger female shoppers, while some of the other Discounters overindex on pensioners, seniors and single parent families.

Your shoppers are price conscious which is why they shop with you – this may be because they are in a lower socioeconomic situation, or simply because they are a bargain hunter shopper archetype.

They are more likely to be forearmed, forewarned and planned versus other types of pharmacy shoppers. They may have been comparing catalogues and may be aware of where their favourite products are cheapest right now.

Whilst they have favourite brands they will buy what’s on special and can be influenced to switch. The trick then is to ensure you’re still making a profit from your promoted items rather than simply shifting a sale to a less profitable discounted item.

COMPETITORS ARE PRICE-DRIVEN

In the case of Discount Pharmacies, your primary competitors for front of store categories are supermarkets, mass merchants, dollar shops and online, especially now with the rise of the Australian dollar.

Your shoppers are specials seekers and they lack store loyalty. One of your challenges is to improve the total value proposition (beyond price alone) to keep them coming back. More on that later.

Destination categories that shoppers are likely to come to you for (based on price initially) are vitamins and supplements (especially bulk packs like Glucosamine), over the counter drugs, cosmetics and personal care items and weight loss.

A WORD ON PRICING STRATEGY

Most Discounters are operating from an aggressive everyday low price or Hi-Lo pricing strategy. This is the primary reason shoppers are drawn to Discounters.

A word of caution, however: pricing strategy needs careful consideration, particularly in relation to which categories you apply it to.  Is your strategy:

• Pulling sales forward and decreasing frequency of purchase through selling bulk packs too cheaply in non-expandable categories?
• Eroding the longer-term value of the category by deflating shoppers’ price expectations? This particularly applies in higher emotional involvement categories.  Are you training shoppers like rats – to only buy certain categories at certain prices, with the end result being reduced category value and margins? This strategy is not sustainable in the longer-term.

Something to consider is how pricing strategy can be expanded to deliver compelling value through bundling instead of purely deep discounting single skus. Alternative direct channels like TVSN do this brilliantly in beauty categories. Alchemy & Akin products that are stocked in Priceline, for example, are actually cheaper on a per unit basis in the product bundles that TVSN sell, and the benefit is that shoppers then trial and become habitual shoppers of more products than just the one they planned to buy. More on this in ‘opportunities’.

So What Are Your Opportunities?

BUNDLE AND COMPANION SELL

• Expand your pricing strategy to encourage trial and build demand and loyalty for new products that weren’t on the original list. Category bundles, brand bundles, bundles by condition, cross-category bundles of related products that provide a compelling value proposition in the shopper’s mind when they do their math on the per unit price. Ideally this expands the number of products they continue to buy from you in the longer term
• Train your shelf-stocking and script staff on ‘this goes with that’ companion sell and promoting bundled price offers
• Instead of pulling sales forward on bulk packs, bundle the bulk packs with related products to expand consumption
• Use the counter and off-location displays for bundling and cross category sales promotions, and link to catalogue
• Optimise your online presence and promote your value bundles here as well.

IMPROVE THE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE

• Let’s call it how it is – shoppers come to you for price, and they expect there is a trade off to some extent in the shopping experience. But the reality is you may be losing potential sales as a result of poor in store execution. Discounters are notoriously confusing and poorly laid out places to shop
• Improve ease of navigation through clear category headers and take it a step further – use category dividers and a logical space and layout strategy where related categories are adjacent to each other and sub categories flow logically within the main category . Do shopper research if you need to. Concept test. It will pay you dividends hundreds of times over to get your layout sorted out properly. The number of shoppers we’ve interviewed that don’t buy all the things they planned to from Discounters because they couldn’t find them is substantial …‘nuff said
• Improve lighting, fixtures, ambience, and reduce clutter where you can. Streamline what your specials tickets look like and how they are used so that the whole store doesn’t assault the eyes to the point where shoppers can’t see the forest for the trees
• If you have a particularly large store with a relatively fixed layout, consider store map flyers at front of store (which can also be used for promotions)
• Provide instore sampling and demonstrations – beauty bars for instance (even some of the grocery chains in the US do this). Shoppers in Discounters have longer browse and dwell times than in other pharmacy segments, and like supermarket stock-up shops they are open to inspiration and experimentation. Capitalise on this by providing means to try new things (that of course mean higher spend/margin).

MAXIMISE YOUR COMMUNICATION

• Another home truth – shoppers aren’t expecting a whole lot of service from you and they’re more likely to try to figure it out themselves in the first instance. So, are you communicating clearly enough?
• Are there educational materials at shelf (displayed in a streamlined rather than cluttered way – such as category wings and blades)?
• Are your catalogue specials clearly linked to POS throughout the store – coreflute headers, offlocation displays and shelf wobblers?
• Are you including educational material and / or catalogues in shopping bags at checkout to encourage repeat visitation?
• Is your online presence and your linked with your in-store communications – is it all consistent and is there a strong call to action?
• Are you optimizing your loyalty program if you have one? How are you communicating with your customers and do you know enough about them to target your communications more effectively? How are you ensuring you get them in your store at least once a month rather than for a twice yearly stockup?

Discounters in some ways have one of the more challenging tasks – keeping shoppers who are the least loyal of all pharmacy shoppers and will readily vote with their feet. Discounters need to start building a broader concept of value to shoppers in the longer-term to avoid being squeezed by online channels and an increasingly fickle shopper base. But the opportunities are there – it’s time to step up the shopper experience and value proposition to stay ahead of the game.

So that’s the final in our pharmacy segment optimization series.  Previous articles in the series may be found at www.shop-ability.com. Feedback is always welcome at enquiries@shop-ability.com.

We’ll be dealing with other elements of differentiating your proposition and services according to who you are in future article series.

Until then!

In other articles we’ve discussed marketing to consumption occasions such as Valentine’s Day, Christmas, lunchbox, breakfast etc. Here we’re going to look at marketing to trip types. Ie the type of shopping mission the shopper is on.

OCCASIONS VS MISSIONS

Or, the difference between consuming and shopping.

Occasions are how and when the products being purchased are consumed. Eg breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, and events such as parties and bbqs. Consumer marketing targets the end consumer of a product to get them to consider the brand.

Missions, or trip types, are the type of shopping trip the shopper is on. So shopper marketing targets the shopper, not the consumer (as we know they’re often different – think pet food and baby).

To date there has only been limited occasion based marketing to consumption occasions (as opposed to the major retail occasions like Christmas) and very little if any marketing to shopping trip types or missions.

So let’s have a look at what some of the trip types are and what can be done to target shoppers on a specific type of shopping trip.

MAJOR TRIP TYPES BY CHANNEL

Below in Figure 1 is a list of the main trip types in some different retail channels. This is an indicative, not exhaustive list and the vertical order of the trips does not necessarily represent largest to smallest.

Figure 1: Main Trip Types by Retail Channel. © ShopAbility 2011

From the above you can see that the trip types differ by channel (but note that Entertaining as a trip type pops up in 4 of the 5 channels). The nature of that trip type may also differ a little per channel.

Destination trips are for something specific. Eg a Destination trip in a supermarket may be for a few catalogue sale items (ie Huggies on deep discount) or because a shopper has run out of something. The ‘run out’ of an item type of Destination trip also applies to convenience stores, but the sale or catalogue aspect is less likely to. However in mass merchants Destination trips will unlikely be about ‘run out’ and mostly about ‘sale’ or on a mission for something specific ie ‘basic black pants for work’.

Certain categories may skew to certain trip types. For example Stock Up in liquor is more about beer slabs and wine cases (particularly in Big Box discounters) and less about spirits and rtd. Entertaining trips – well, you’ve seen it yourself at the checkout when someone has a trolley full of softdrinks, chips, crackers, cheese and dips.

Interestingly though, who is on what trip type doesn’t necessarily skew to certain lifestages. Whilst it might be tempting to think that SINKS and DINKS (single/double income no kids) have higher disposable incomes and more time to entertain, young families also do a lot of home entertaining because taking the kids out somewhere is both a hassle and expensive.

And it’s not just SINKS/DINKS on ‘Dinner Tonight’ trips either. Shopper studies we’ve done have shown that large households with lots of mouths to feed are likely to have a mum in the supermarket a couple of times a week looking for inspiration and a quick solution for tonight’s dinner.

How they shop by trip type obviously differs. For example, Dinner Tonight trips are about easy all-in-one-place solutions where on Stock Up shops shoppers are looking for inspiration, experimentation and variety of meal types. And certain trip types are more likely to get more impulse than others. Shoppers on Stock Up trips (approx 30% of supermarket shopping trips) will do an aisle-by-aisle shop regardless of what’s in each aisle. These are the shoppers and trips likely to result in the most impulse.

What this all means is that by marketing to trip types you’ll be able to talk to a fair portion of the shopper base at once, in a way that is relevant to them.

MARKETING TO TRIP TYPES

Know where they go

Stock Up shoppers are likely to shop every aisle, where Top Up shoppers will only shop certain aisles and categories, and Dinner Tonight shoppers basically do a ‘perimeter’ shop around the outside categories of the store – fresh fruit & veg, delicatessen, bakery with a couple of dips into the centre store meal solutions aisles for Taco kits etc.

This information will help you figure out what to put where in the store – offlocation displays, hangsell, co-located products, dual located products.

Shopper research can help you with this information.

Know what they buy per trip

By mapping the categories to the trip types, including ‘what else’ they buy -  essentially what’s in the basket -  enables you to bundle categories and products together to create a solution (don’t do yourself out of dough though by discounting too heavily on behaviours the shoppers are already doing).

It will also assist in helping understand what impulse displays could go in or near which aisles … the classic ‘beer and nappies’ Tesco type scenario applies here.  As well as the obvious, such as salad dressings with the salads, chilled or shelf stable desserts near the pasta, salty snacks near the softdrinks etc.

Instore intercept interview research can help flesh this out for you, mapped against basket data.

Don’t just limit it to what they see instore

Instore executions such as offlocation displays against your trip type can be supplemented with banners, instore media and creating solutions by placing key items next to each other. But you also have an opportunity to talk to a specific trip type before the shopper even embarks on it.

What can you do pre-store to market to Entertaining or Dinner Tonight trips? (Stock up and top up are a bit harder).

Catalogues, websites, social media/advocacy groups and potentially selected above-the-line media could all work to promote bundles against these trips (proof of the pudding being both the majors’ focus on family meals).

In other words, you can not only make their shopping experience more pleasant and interesting by putting things where they expect for their trip type, but provide unexpected impulse opportunities and promotions that make sense in the context of their shopping trip for extra sales.