Adapting Retail Marketing to Current In-Store Behaviors

Inflation and economic uncertainty have greatly impacted shopper behaviors, making it critical to adapt your retail marketing to current in-store behaviors.

As we approach the halfway point of the year, now is the perfect time for our industry to regroup on the current realities that U.S. consumers are facing, and ideate on how the industry might adapt its tactics to meet today’s shopper where they are, with what they want, how and when they want it.

This assessment must start with a healthy bit of empathy for today’s consumer. No doubt, 2023 has been characterized by social disruption, cultural change, and historic inflation. As we edge our way out of ‘post-pandemic’ trends and witness consumer behaviors begin to regulate, a reality emerges that requires an intentional and inquisitive perspective to drive retail strategies. This current reality can be characterized by the following observations:

• Shoppers are increasingly concerned about the rising costs of food products. In fact, FMI recently reported that grocery food prices (75%) have overtaken fuel (69%) as shoppers’ #1 concern when it comes to rising prices.[i] Shoppers’ concern with rising grocery prices is up 6 percentage points from October 2022.
• As more than two-thirds of shoppers say they are spending more on groceries now than they were a year ago[ii], the industry is undoubtedly seeing a strengthening desire among shoppers to find value in their purchases and overall shopping experiences.
• A changing world requires a fresh look at the concept of “value” and what it means to shoppers during these times of cultural shifts and economic uncertainty. FMI recently reported that 87% of shoppers consider "getting good value" when shopping for food and groceries a high or top priority, and 52% believe finding good value has become more important over the past year.

The Value Equation for Shoppers: It Isn’t What It Used To Be

The value equation can no longer be defined by the age old “price, quality, quantity” criteria alone. Today’s shoppers are redefining the concept of value, and marketers must consider the expanded definition as they seek to create meaningful and successful in-store campaigns.

According to FMI, the concept of “Value” for shoppers has expanded to include:

• Quality: This means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but can encompass attributes such as freshness, nutrition, product sourcing, and ethical considerations.
• Experience: It’s not just about a clean store and a friendly staff anymore (though those are still key factors). Today’s shoppers include new factors in defining “Value”, such as having a pleasant experience, discovering new things, and finding novelty and variety in their journey.
• Relevance: Shoppers today take special consideration into the utility of an item, measuring internally how closely it aligns with household needs and preferences and how likely the product is to actually be used before going to waste. They also report deliberating over “wants versus needs” in this setting. VideoMining has observed shoppers spending an increasing amount of time ‘deliberating’ at the shelf in times of economic uncertainty.
• Convenience: Finally, shoppers continue to see value in speed, ease, and accessibility. Further, shoppers are adding new dimensions to the definition of convenience , citing flexibility, experience, and relevance as growing requirements.

All of this suggests that creating the winning formula for in-store displays requires a fresh look at in-store behavior. Now is the time for marketers to reevaluate their Display Playbooks, taking cues from fact-based behavioral insights to understand and guide marketing decisions designed to drive total store growth.

The Message Matters:

A display’s success can vary exponentially based on the message featured and the ways that message is delivered.  Connecting with shopper, contributing to their experience, and offering something that they interpret as valuable is essential to interrupt, entice, and engage.  To unlock a winning combination of copy and imagery on signage and displays, VideoMining recommends A/B testing with distinct messages and images.  In-store behavioral analysis helps unlock the true and unbiased reactions of shoppers to help identify messages with stopping power.  Such testing has revealed a 2-3x variance in engagement levels for the same exact display with different messaging.

Location, Location, Location

The location of secondary displays is a question that marketers often pose when designing in-store campaigns.  Of course, every square inch of retail space must be optimized to deliver maximum ROI and displays take up valuable real estate on the floor.  Therefore, it is essential that the right products are featured in the right place with the right message to drive total store productivity. VideoMining has observed engagement rates on secondary displays varying upwards of 600% based solely on the category and the location. To build a show-stopping campaign, marketers must look at the actual behavior of in-store shoppers and invite a data-driven rationale to the placement of displays.

VideoMining's proprietary in-store behavior observation technology is powered by machine learning and offers marketers quantitative and fact-based behavioral data on the impact of displays, empowering retailers, and suppliers alike, to bring a valuable new dimension of behavior-based analytics to lead display best practices in-store. To learn more about VideoMining’s unmatched shopper behavior analytics, visit www.videomining.com

[i] FMI, US Shopping Trends 2023, https://www.fmi.org/forms/store/ProductFormPublic/u-s-grocery-shopper-trends-2023-shopping-trends

[ii] FMI, US Shopping Trends 2023