Despite retailers embarking on aggressive price wars and enticing loyalty rewards programs, securing the weekly grocery shop has never been more difficult.
Aussie shoppers are savvy and are willing to shop across multiple retailers to complete their shopping list. Analysis using Nielsen’s Homescan shopper panel (which captures purchases via its 10,000-household panel whose members scan every single grocery item they take home) shows 64 percent of shoppers visited more than one of the four major retailer chains in the same week.
For retailers, the challenge is not just about driving foot traffic through their doors, it’s about ensuring they are getting the majority (if not all) of that day’s grocery spend before the shopper leaves the store. In today’s economy, savvy shoppers are, quite literally, willing to go the extra mile to get what they want.
Our research shows that in the past year, one in every three grocery trips, included multiple retailers on the same day.
Australians choose to shop across multiple stores for various reasons, such as seeking a brand on special, searching for a favourite item that is out of stock at one store, or pursuing a retailer-exclusive brand. These multiple store trips often includes a big retailer/specialty store combination, however same day shopping across the major retailers is even more popular. Information from Nielsen’s Homescan shopper panel shows that 12 percent of shopping trips to Coles and Woolworths over the past year, occurred on the same day.
So what’s it worth to keep a shopper in your store? For the big two retailers, as much as 20 percent of sales are lost due to shoppers completing that days grocery shopping in another retailer. As shoppers’ wallets becomes increasingly fragmented, it’s now more important than ever to have a full market view of where and what shoppers are spending their dollars on.
For manufacturers, this uncovers a need to understand which categories or more importantly, which of their brands are persuading consumers to switch stores to complete their grocery trip. This enables collaboration with retailers on better satisfying consumers’ needs, and ensures they are not missing opportunities to increase in-store spend and grow retailer loyalty.