Danielle Pinnington, Shoppercentric
With a long and established career in FMCG and consumer market research, Danielle set up the specialist independent shopper research agency Shoppercentric in 2004. She is widely recognised as a shopper expert and a credible retail guru by her peers and appears regularly in the press. Shoppercentric clients include the likes of Philips, Morrisons, Unilever, Wickes, Coca Cola and many others.
5 comments By Danielle Pinnington, Shoppercentric
The change in approach from Tesco seems to be paying off. A strong Christmas showed how far things had turned around, and the more confident approach to advertising and communication continues to demonstrate a return to what they are best at.
That said they’ve had a couple of recent slips that have kept social media busy: the proposed changes to Clubcard was not well received by loyal shoppers, nor was the meal deal shrinkflation which hit stores in this last week. So they need to be mindful that shoppers have so many easily accessible alternatives to Tesco. The business needs to cast a shopper perspective over all their plans, to make sure they don’t lose touch and alienate the very people making such a difference to their bottom line.Toys R Us were certainly challenged by the grocers putting more effort into the toys sections in-store, as well as the obvious online competitors. And there was limited sign of them moving their store designs with the times.
Sad news for the employees, and for shoppers who like the immediacy of a store purchase and the scale of the Toys R Us offer.At a time when shoppers are being more cautious and looking at where they are spending, now was not the time to play with the benefits of the loyalty card. Whilst some of the changes were an improvement for shoppers, their natural cynical perspective these days is to focus on what they will lose.
Loyalty cards are seen as a reward for loyalty by shoppers – so any messing around with the benefits undermines that sense of reward, and the perceived value that the retailer places on their shoppers. Not a great way to maintain trust.
Finally, the U turn has been forced by the fact that shoppers these days are willing and able to speak out when they feel taken advantage of. Tesco’s recent past, including previous amends to the loyalty card, should have been sufficient filter in the planning process to have stopped these changes in their tracks. Tesco can’t afford to lose any of the ground they have fought so hard to win since Dave Lewis took the helm.Our own data shows more UK shoppers used Discounters in the last month than this time a year ago, so as the likes of Lidl and Aldi increase the number of stores, the resulting increase in accessibility is matched by their appeal.
In view of the BRC figures, it looks like Morrisons have benefitted from shoppers focus on food rather than non-food this Christmas, as well as their work to deliver the ranges and in-store experience that appeals to their shoppers.
As belts tighten shoppers will focus on the essentials – of which grocery shopping is an obvious one. As long as Morrisons continue to focus on meeting shoppers needs then they should be well placed to cope with a potentially tricky year head for retail.
Commented on: 2018-04-11T08:40:48.650
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