Shopper marketing blog

Q. What happens when the government says "stay at home"?

A. People get up early and go to the supermarket!

Kantar* have just said that grocery sales were up 20.6% in March to their highest ever level, peaking 16th - 19th March. From our analysis of shopper's receipts submitted to us as part of cashback claims, we can see that they were up much earlier than usual that week, probably to "avoid the crowds" or just get there when items are in stock. This happened again the week after, when the restrictions were increased as the chart below illustrates:

As we go through a surge in online shopping, now is the perfect time to ensure your brands get their fair share of sales both now and in the future. Of course you should ensure you have the right images and descriptions, as these form "the basics" of eCommerce. It is also fundamental to your success to offer the undecided a perspective from their fellow shoppers through Ratings & Reviews. Genuine shopper product reviews delivered from validated buyers directly to the retailer sites, without any moderation on a specific sku are the best way of doing this and will make an immediate impact to sales.

Delivering Ratings & Reviews

After our Sainsburys Ratings and Reviews blog last month we've been digging around the other main UK supermarket websites.  We know that Tesco don't currently show Ratings & Reviews on their website, so when we popped the hood on their site and had a look around we were surprised to discover that their ratings & reviews were actually there but hidden from the public.

To save you the time finding and collating for yourselves, we’ve pulled it together into some nice summary charts below. For your free brand report for your category, just get in touch and we’ll happily send you one over.  

Figure 1: Infographic summary of Tesco.com ratings & reviews

As part of our work on delivering Ratings and Reviews for FMCG clients we are often asked “What is a Good Rating?”. To answer this we decided to look at the data on the Sainsbury’s website. What we found surprised us.

We have undertaken an exclusive analysis of the product level shopper Ratings & Reviews on the Sainsburys.co.uk website and found that a few suppliers have led the way with gathering reviews whilst most have done very little. As a result, some categories and brands have thousands of reviews and others just a handful.

What emerges from our analysis is a clear opportunity for nearly all grocery FMCG manufacturers to gain a competitive advantage in their category by giving online grocery shoppers a perspective from their existing consumers.

If you believe in the products you sell, why wouldn't you want your consumers to tell others how great they are?

The 3Ps of Supermarket Shopper Marketing

When launching your long-planned and lovingly-developed grocery NPD into supermarkets, it’s critical that it appeals to and is tried by the target consumers. Getting it into the hands, baskets and homes of the right grocery shoppers can be a daunting task, but here’s what you need to remember and how to go about it.

Supermarket shoppers are the key to NPD success as they are the ones who actually pick the product off the shelves and take it home, regardless of whether they, or someone else in their household is the end consumer. This is the crux of  Shopper Marketing and understanding the art  of getting shoppers to Pause, Pick up & Pay for your product is known as the 3 Ps of shopper marketing.

After analysing the shopping basket data from than 500,000 grocery receipts uploaded by our members in the Decembers of 2013 - 2017, we can see that on average there is a steady rise in sales in the four days leading up to 23^rd December.

The team at leading Shopper Marketing Agency CheckoutSmart have produced their Christmas sales forecast for 2018. With Christmas Day falling on a Tuesday in 2018, it is predicted that many shoppers will leave their Christmas grocery shop until the weekend before, with an expected surge on Saturday 22^nd and Sunday 23^rd December. This will allow shoppers to take advantage of final Christmas promotional activity and stock up on perishables and fresh produce before the big day. Christmas Eve, will then see a dramatic fall-off in predicted sales at just 5.6% of the week, as everyone settles down at home or heads to friends and family for the festive period. 

In 2018 we conducted research that showed 65% of our members look at our app when they are planning their food shopping, and 35% while they shop in the supermarket*. It is clear that grocery cashback apps are an excellent route to deliver shopper marketing goals (we have more on the whole Shopper Marketing approach here)

For example, we can use Geo targeting to serve brand advertising right onto consumers mobile devices at the first moment of truth, but the power of these apps goes a lot further than simply helping to raise brand awareness.

Based on our experience as Europe's No.1 grocery cashback organisation, here are the top 10 ways you can start using these apps to your advantage today:

Coca-Cola retains their crown as the UK’s favourite online supermarket brand

CheckoutSmart, Europe’s No.1 grocery cashback app has released the UK’s Top 100 Online Grocery Brands report based on our online data. Once again, Coca-Cola was on sparkling form accounting for 66p in every £100 spent online by shoppers. This is an important club because £16.15 of every £100 spent is accounted for by the Top 100 brands.

Who else was a winner? Aptamil baby milk is growing up well as the fastest climber within the top 25, moving up 9 places to 19^th. The No.1 Beer brand was Stella Artois, up 14 places to 32^nd closely followed by Fosters up 12 places at 38^th. Their perfect accompaniment Walkers Crisps was a new entrant in the Top Ten at 9^th.