Core2Store and RSS see shopper angst shift from price to availability
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As little as 2 years ago the price of products was the most important issue for shoppers. Now, in a report from Shopper Insight Agency Core2Store, the position has shifted, and it’s more about availability. That is according to the collective findings of a shopper survey from Reasearchbods coupled with store insight from Core2Store and agency RSS.
Researchbods polled 1,000 people on their attitudes to their daily shop. They reported that – relating to the major store they shopped in – 38% of shoppers complained that products they wanted were not always available either normally or on promotion. 31% complained that it was not easy to find the products they wanted – that’s compared to just 36% mentioning price.
Colin Harper MD of Core2Store explained “Price has continued to drop, ranges to compress, but products are not in place to meet demand. Unchanged store supply systems are just not up to the job of moving products fast enough to meet local demand based on the need to make return on ever smaller margins”.
The problem goes right back to individual stores, as RSS, a leading Field Marketing agency, found when they interviewed 177 managers, on their attitude to the shopper figures. 60% of these managers reported they agreed the availability issue applied in their store, but an interesting 12% of managers (18% for Morrisons) believed the position was worse than this.
70% of these managers reported that they would be very interested to learn where their store could do better. Ben Myles from RSS commented “Give managers believable figures, and show them where they can improve in their store and they will do all they can to help”. Myles added “Store managers are on the front line and you can build trust on the back of accurate, timely, advice”
Harper summed up “There are real opportunities here to take a message of better to managers and meet a warm reception – one that will play well in terms of profit and ROI. We have case studies of 30% sales improvement from simply passing the right message to the right manager.”
