The Shopper Technology Institute

Shopper Tech Update                 December 20, 2010 - Volume 1, Issue 3
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In This Issue
FEATURE STORY: How Can Measuring Shopper Behavior Improve Brand and Category Sales?
CHANNELS: What Is Retail 3.0?
MARKET WATCH: Use of Smart Phones by Bargain-Hunting Shoppers Is Changing the Customer-Retailer Relationship: Survey
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Feature Story

Path to PurchaseHow Can Measuring

Shopper Behavior Improve Brand and Category Sales?

 

Increasing brand and category sales is what every marketer and retailer aims for. Sophisticated technology is now enabling trading partners to meet their goals by measuring and analyzing shopper behavior in any store.

 

For example, let's look at frozen food, which is a dynamic category in grocery stores. There are dozens of products ranging from ice cream, pizza and snacks to vegetables, entrees, and meals. Innovative products such as new ethnic foods continue to be introduced.

 

As a result, marketing and merchandising frozen food is challenging. An increasing number of exciting new products need to be placed in a fixed space. Even when the planogram is set, product visibility becomes an issue with shoppers peering through glass doors to find their favorite brand.  

 

Unique technology in the form of in-store measurement of shopper behavior is now available to help trading partners address these challenges and ultimately increase brand and category sales...

 

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Channels
ScannerWhat Is Retail 3.0? 

 

"Retail 1.0" was the era of the national brands. It was supplier driven through mass media and lasted until the mid 1990s when Walmart entered the grocery business. 

"Retail 2.0" saw power shift to the retailers with data drawn from card-based loyalty programs. At the same time, chains applied sophisticated marketing skills to their private brands.

 

Now there is "Retail 3.0" for the age of the shopper.

 

"Retail 3.0 is the next-generation retail eco system, driven by relevant marketing to the individual

shopper, and supported by real-time marketing and supply chain synergies, all built on a foundation of shopper-identified transaction data," explains Gary Hawkins, president of the Center for Advancing Retail Technology.

 

Connecting all the digital retail systems to create more relevant, individualized marketing for shoppers will boost efficiencies for everyone in the supply chain, says Hawkins, also president of Green Hills Market in Syracuse, N.Y.

 

Shoppers are "bombarded" by irrelevant marketing messages and an abundance of information on the Internet, including social networking. So marketers are looking to retail with relevant individualized marketing as a way to cut through the clutter...

 

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Market Watch 
i-phone

Use of Smart Phones by Bargain-Hunting Shoppers Is Changing The Customer-Retailer Relationship: Survey 

 

Cost-conscious consumers are relying on their smart phones to explore alternative retail channels to secure bargains, says a new survey about mobile devices and shopping.

 

The findings of a study of 1,000 consumers in 10 countries by Accenture suggest that couponing could become a more important part of the retail experience as smart phone technology becomes more widespread, and if retailers are adept at using customer analytics to target messages and deals to consumers.  

 

For example, eight of ten (79%) of smart phone users would find it useful to download money-off coupons to their phones. Nearly three quarters of them (73%) would find it useful to receive instant money-off coupons as they pass by an item in a store. Conversely, fewer than half (48%) of smart phone users have downloaded a coupon from their PCs. 

 

The results of the survey also indicate that smart phone technology is changing the relationship between customers and retailers. Many smart phone users said that they prefer using their mobile device rather than interacting with a store employee for simple tasks...

 

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