The rules of the retail marketplace are changing dramatically. With the development of new technologies for bi-directional communication, consumers can get more information about retailers and their products more easily than ever before. Armed with knowledge gleaned from a multitude of sources, they are spending their money on the goods and services they value most and stipulating how they will interact with retailers.
Major socioeconomic shifts are simultaneously taking place. The global population is projected to increase by 12.4 % over the next decade; more people now live in cities than in rural areas; and more than half the emerging world's inhabitants have become middle-class by the standards of the countries in which they reside. These changes will create a new pool of shoppers - the "affluent potentials" and rural poor - with $5.4 trillion to spend. In short, consumers are becoming more numerous and more prosperous. But they are also becoming more diverse, more demanding and smarter.
Thanks to the Internet, mobile phones, in-store kiosks and other such technologies, many consumers now have instantaneous access to a wealth of information about retailers and their products. They are using this information to decide what to buy and where to buy it...
Managing product assortments at the shelf is an important task for every consumer goods company. Assortment planning remains a critical component in retail execution. It is the key to satisfying shoppers and maximizing volume.
It is imperative to have the proper assortment at that point of interruption between the product and the consumer. However, so many assortment tools and processes fail to account for and incorporate a critical element - the consumer.
"A robust analytical approach creates in-store product assortments based on actual consumer behavior. It goes beyond traditional practices, providing consumer-driven analysis to help manufacturers and retailers make assortment decisions with greater accuracy and confidence," says Greg Orth, a director with Henry Rak Consulting Partners (HRCP).
He lists three reasons to use a consumer-driven approach to manage product assortments...
Challenges Remain for Growth of Mobile Shopper Marketing
Mobile shopper marketing is creating a buzz nowadays. It is becoming a key element in the digital space via online (sampling, websites, search engines), in-store (kiosks, digital signage), and word of mouth (social networks). Moreover, it will become the fourth lane in multi-channel marketing, along with store, catalog and web.
However, mobile shopper marketing is a fragmented and opportunistic space today, according to the results of a survey by GfK Interscope. Although there are hundreds of new apps launched per day, there lacks best practices to leverage digital/mobile in sore. The readiness of trading partners for digital/mobile revolution is lacking with some 41% of them devoting less than 1% of the marketing budget to this area. Only 40% of organizations have a dedicated digital/mobile team, according to the firm's latest Futurescope survey...
Three Reasons to Use a Consumer-Driven Approach
