Product range driving customers in-store, IRI research
60% of European shoppers choose a supermarket because of a wide range of products, according to the IRI Shopper Insights Report which surveyed 2,600 consumers across seven countries.
Other reasons include products being in one place (40%) and customer loyalty cards (27%). Across all the countries surveyed – Italy, Greece, Spain, Germany, France, the UK and the Netherlands – having a wide range of products was least important when selecting discounters and also when shopping online, with shoppers driven primarily by price (68% and 50% respectively).
However, for specialised stores, it appears to be a main driver for people visiting that shop in the first place. Of those visiting a drug store, 56% chose it because of range and 52% because of convenience, while 55% of shoppers entering a frozen food store do so because of range, 51% because of convenience and 43% because of price and promotions. When it comes to our pets, 53% of consumers choose a pet store because of the wide range of products on offer, while 44% say convenience is important. Health and organic shops come out on top for product range, with 68% of shoppers indicating that they choose a store based on this criteria, followed by good quality (47%) and store services (39%). Focusing on range is also critical for beauty stores, with 59% of shoppers selecting a store because it offers a wide range of products, while 49% are attracted by in-store services and 34% by quality.
“Our survey has shown quite clearly that European shoppers increasingly prefer to visit online stores, with a third saying they do so regularly, so bricks and mortar stores are having to work much harder at getting people in-store,” says Laura Fusi, Shopper Insight Senior Manager, IRI. “Retailers will have to manage their assortment, in collaboration with manufacturers, by understanding in-depth what each shopper in each store is expecting to find, if possible in a supermarket format, as hypermarkets have become too large. And going further, this personalisation approach, thanks to Big Data technologies like IRI Liquid Data, enables them to reach each shopper with the right message, with promotions for instance, at any moment of his/her shopping trip.”