Shopper marketing blog

Whether you're reformulating to comply with the UK's upcoming HFSS advertising restrictions or to address low product ratings, the imperative is clear: act swiftly and strategically.

From 5 January 2026, the UK will enforce new advertising restrictions on products high in fat, salt, or sugar (HFSS). These regulations will prohibit paid-for online ads for identifiable HFSS products at any time and restrict TV ads for such products before 9pm. Businesses with 250 or more employees will be affected.

Simultaneously, our analysis reveals that the bottom 20% of products with at least 30 reviews in UK supermarkets since 2023 have an average rating of less than 4.0. This figure underscores a vital truth: these products don’t need more reviews—they need reformulating to succeed.

At CheckoutSmart, we view these challenges not as obstacles but as opportunities. Our SmartReformulation solution is designed to help brand managers update and relaunch poorly rated SKUs, ensuring products not only meet regulatory standards but also resonate with consumers.

The opportunity for improved taste with HFSS/LHf compliance

The upcoming HFSS/LHF legislation, effective from 5 January 2026, presents a strategic opportunity for brands to enhance both the nutritional profile and taste of their products. By reformulating to reduce levels of fat, sugar, and salt, and incorporating beneficial ingredients like fibre, protein, and fruits, companies can not only comply with regulatory requirements but also meet the growing consumer demand for healthier options.

At the request of one of our brand partners, we are stepping into the world of FMCG brand tracking. We are going to research some of the top brands in the UK and find out what shoppers think of them in terms of buyer recommendation, and the results may surprise you. 

These are the brands we included were:

Brand	Owner	Brand	Owner
Coca-Cola	Coca-Cola Co	Mr Kipling	Premier Foods
Comfort	Unilever	Muller	Muller Diary
Fairy	P&G	Pepsi	PepsiCo
Heinz	Kraft Heinz	Pringles	Kellanova
Kellogg	Kellogg	Walkers	PepsiCo
Kinder	Ferrero	Warburtons	Warburtons
McCain	McCain	Yeo Valley	Yeo Valley
McVitie's	Pladis Global

NB All these brands are "Top" brands in the UK. They were chosen after shoppers selected ones they bought regularly from a long list of brands to ensure a significant number of responses for every brand. As a result, this list's "bottom" performers are still amongst the most frequently bought and top recommended brands in the UK.

Transform your FMCG brand with CheckoutSmart's innovative 3C Consumer Experience framework. Focus on complaints, complacency, and compliments to discover how continuous consumer feedback can enhance your consumers' experience.

The recent meteoric rise of artificial intelligence (AI) models is revolutionising how we interact with computers and access information online. But has AI made a significant difference in ratings and reviews, and is it what shoppers want?

Amazon has rolled out generative AI to create succinct product-level summaries of reviews for many of its products to support shoppers' decision-making process. Several clients have asked us to explore how this has impacted a shopper’s experience when using Amazon and understand how these features are perceived compared to ‘traditional’ ratings and reviews.

To do this, we created a study to research how regular Amazon shoppers use the site. The study simulates the shopping process for a selection of grocery category products. 

We received over 2500 responses, and our key findings challenge the notion that AI automatically benefits users.

The 4 key takeaways are:

1. Individual Ratings and reviews are as important as ever
2. Shoppers don't hang around when shopping for groceries on Amazon
3. Amazon's AI features are hardly used or even noticed
4. There is little evidence of AI improving the shopping experience, but the generations split opinion

Paul Lees our MD sat down with Francis Nicholas of eStoreMedia to talk about the ratings and reviews in the Moisturiser category. In 25 minutes they covered which retailers carry reviews, how many there are, which brands have them, whether they have enough reviews and then some fascinating insights from the reviews themselves.

The Top 3 points he made were:

1. There are 7 dimensions to Moisturiser according to the shopper reviews and Nivea does very well in 4 of them, giving them a strong position.
2. Individual reviews matter when it comes to reviews it is not just about numbers. Shoppers read the top few reviews they see regardless of how many there are in total.
3. We have a measure of how influential reviews are: "Influence score". This shows that L'Oreal has the most influential reviews and Olay from Procter & Gamble (P&G) has the lowest in the category.

This kind of category work providing market coverage, opportunities and category insights is available for all categories. Contact us to understand what we can do for you.

Meanwhile, please watch and learn more about reviews and moisturisers:

This time we are looking at the face & body moisturiser category in the UK. We particularly want to look at which companies and brands are doing well i.e., have good positive reviews that are up to date and will influence shoppers and those who need to be a bit smarter.

We are also keen to understand more about moisturisers from a shoppers' perspective. What do they say about the category, what language do they use to describe it, and how do they see the relative merits of brands?

To do this, we have gathered and analysed all the reviews on facial and body moisturisers in the top UK online supermarkets since 2020. We processed them through quality control, removing all the unhelpful “!!!!!!!!” etc., that some reviewers like to use, then pivoted, tabled, graphed, AI-analysed, discussed, and debated. Finally, we came out with what we think are the more interesting points about the moisturiser reviews in UK supermarkets.

We focussed on the top 6 brands analysed, selected by the total number of reviews found across ASDA, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, and Ocado for 2020 - 2023.

1. Brands with more reviews, have lower quality reviews
2. The most popular Shopper dimensions for moisturiser are:
   1. Absorbs Easily – Doesn’t Absorb easily
   2. Not Greasy - Greasy
   3. Smells great – Does not smell Great
   4. Good for Dry skin – Not good for dry skin
   5. Good for Sensitive skin – Not good for sensitive skin
   6. Good for Lines/wrinkles – Not good for lines/wrinkles
   7. Good to Soft skin – Not good to soften skin
3. Despite having lots of reviews all brands need new reviews on the majority of SKUs.

It's obvious when you think about it, that for online grocery shoppers selecting products to put in their basket, product Rating out of 5 is always more important than the number of Reviews, right?

Well, wrong actually and not just wrong occasionally, wrong most of the time. From our research of 3,710 online supermarket shoppers we know that when the average Ratings for two similar products are different by as much as 0.3 eg 4.2 vs 4.5, then the number of Reviews is much more important in product choice. Let me give you an example:

In this article, you will discover how we use AI text analysis to unlock valuable shopper insights and change the way our clients understand customer preferences and behaviours. By the end, you will understand how we go from thousands of text-based product reviews to something as simple and useful as this:

Creating actionable shopper insights has always been crucial for businesses looking to get an advantage in consumer goods. By analysing the text content of shopper reviews using AI technology, consumer goods businesses can gain valuable insights into customer preferences and behaviours. AI (Large Language Model) text analysis allows businesses to go beyond simple quantitative data and understand the emotions, opinions, and sentiments expressed by shoppers in their reviews.

At CheckoutSmart, we are passionate about consumer product reviews. We not only provide up-to-date reviews for brands nationwide, but we also take the time to analyse and learn from them. Reviews offer valuable insights from shoppers, giving us a glimpse into the latest trends and category-specific information. With over half a million reviews from the top 6 supermarkets in the UK alone at our disposal, we have a wealth of information to explore.

Whether it is the latest trends, such as we bring alive in our Moaning March post or category specific insights from the Haircare category, there is always plenty to hear and learn. As we have all the up to date reviews for the Top 6 supermarkets in the UK in our database (over half a million) we have plenty to delve into.

We also use the review data to run our Always On SmartReputation solution, delivering reviews with precision where they are needed by SKU and retailer. This ensures that our clients can have complete confidence in the freshness and impact of the reviews on their brands, alleviating any concerns they may have. This frees up resource to get on with more added value activity as well as reducing the anxiety of surprises when someone in the team spots a series of poor reviews on one of your key packs.

In this blog post, we will be delving into the fascinating world of coffee reviews in Morrisons. Morrisons stands out as an intriguing space for reviews, as they do not participate in syndication like some other retailers. This means that not all products have a significant number of reviews for analysis, potentially causing them to be overlooked. However, in the coffee category alone, we have gathered over 100 reviews for each brand we are examining from the past 2 years. This wealth of reviews provides us with a solid foundation for uncovering valuable insights.

The event held in London was an intimate and relaxed gathering, featuring a knowledgeable group of industry experts who weren't there to push products, but rather, to share their thoughts and ideas. The audience consisted of a diverse mix of food and beverage manufacturers, food service providers and operators, and a handful of retailers, contributing to a well-rounded and informative day filled with lively conversations and shared insights.

Rather than rehashing the entire agenda, my intention is to provide a condensed summary of the relevant topics, with a focus on novel and significant areas. However, summarising is not an exact science, so my apologies if I missed any insightful comments made by presenters.

The Food industry challenges

My overall summary of the themes for the day: