Blog

84% of Consumers Using 2 or More Bargain-Hunting Tactics

Interesting article summarizing Tabs Analytics research showing consumer deal behavior. As consumer options (particularly digital) continue to multiply and evolve, employing and coordinating multiple tactics to reach and influence consumers becomes critical for successful promotion strategy.

Grocers Ditch Deals at Their Peril, Study Finds (winsightgrocerybusiness.com)https://www.winsightgrocerybusiness.com/retailers/grocers-ditch-deals-their-peril-study-finds

Walmart Transitioning to Facilitate Physical Shopping with “Digital Journey”

Similar to their recent announcement testing a partnership with Instacart, Walmart continues accommodating the evolving omni-channel shopping experience.

Here’s the link to the article

Grocery Coupons Shine During COVID-19 – Progressive Grocer

Digital coupon technology adoption has accelerated, and it can be expected that many consumers now adopting these behaviors will not revert back to more traditional coupon usage and behaviors, despite an expected emphasis on value.

Grocery Coupons Shine During COVID-19

How Might Consumer Behavior Change in 2023?

Survey: Consumers look to save money, reduce spending in 2023 | Chain Store Age

DTC Success Stories Analysis

Interesting article, and interesting to observe how both Harry’s and Dollar Shave Club coupon promotions work to stimulate trial https://www.cbinsights.com/research/direct-to-consumer-retail-strategies/

33 Percent Of Grocery Customers Would Use Digital Coupons If Retailers Offered Them

Author: 

Grocery shopping is clearly no longer confined to the aisles of the local Kroger or even a superstore like Target or Walmart. With services like AmazonFresh and Peapod, consumers can load up on kale, chicken — or whatever they need for their next meal — from their computers or smartphones.

Online grocery sales are a booming business, with the eCommerce segment expected to make up 20 percent of all grocery sales by 2025. Traditional brick-and-mortar grocery stores are seeking to adapt to this new market through ominchannel marketing. Kroger, for example, plans to spend $9 billion over the next three years to modernize, according to the PYMNTS.com Omni Usage Index.

As the online grocery business grows, retailers that sell the products that stock refrigerators and pantries across the country are seeking to expand their marketing efforts across multiple channels — online and in-store. When trying to connect with consumers or offering them a deal on a product, here are five things to keep in mind.

— One-third, or 32 percent, of customers of large-format grocers would appreciate social-sharing efforts, and 12 percent already do. Through platforms such as Instagram, for example, grocery brands can promote their products and show what the end results of a successful trip to the supermarket could look like. As Insta’s focus is entirely visual, grocers can show appealing recipes and party spreads using products that can be found in their aisles. Retailers can take advantage of other social media platforms too, such as Snapchat. One grocer has even used Snap to document each step of a fish’s journey from sea to market, captured with Snapchat Spectacles. Still, it should be noted that a whopping 42 percent would not use this feature, so not everyone wants follow a fish’s journey on Snap — at least not yet.

— While a large percentage of large-format grocers already use digital coupons, 40 percent, 33 percent would use them if retailers offered them. Target, for example, has a mobile app called Cartwheel that brings manufacturers’ digital coupons to consumers’ smartphones. From the app, consumers can “clip” coupons that, in some cases, are the same ones found in the local newspaper. As TechCrunch has pointed out, this digital method of coupon clipping increases Target shoppers’ potential savings, as manufacturers’ coupons frequently offer greater discounts than those offered only through the app, like special offers on Target’s private label products.

— Many large-format grocery store customers, 41 percent, use rewards — but 35 percent would take advantage of them if retailers offered them. Some grocers like Stop & Shop have their own loyalty programs. Others may rely on third-party platforms such as Shopkick, which allow consumers to earn rewards while grocery shopping and drive sales for grocers. Over a year of research and development, Shopkick Grocery was found to increase consumer basket sizes to $59 in grocery, drugstore and retail spend per trip versus the $32 national average. Likewise, Shopkick Grocery increased weekly visits to the grocery store and increased consumer engagement at the shelf, according to the company’s research.

— Paper coupons are popular, too. Thirty-nine percent of large-format grocer customers take advantage of them, but 37 percent would clip them if retailers made them available. Believe it or not, old-fashioned coupons remain a viable method to reach retail consumers. Surprisingly, nearly 90 percent of millennials actually use paper coupons that come through the mail, and response rates to consumer mailings are up 60 percent from 10 years ago, according to direct mail marketer Valassis.

— And while only about a quarter, or 26 percent, of large-format grocery store customers currently opt in to marketing, 33 percent would use that feature if provided by a retailer. Reaching customers can be a tricky business, but having customers opt in to marketing reduces unwanted messages, personalizes advertising and makes it useful to the consumer. For grocers, information from the opt-in process can provide valuable brand engagement and return on investment (ROI) data.

As online entrants into the grocery space grow, traditional brick-and-mortar retailers are looking for digital partners to help usher in the digital era of groceries. Kroger executives reportedly are in talks with Alibaba, the Chinese eCommerce retailer, for example.

Through such a deal, consumers in the future could be inspired to buy a new kitchen appliance or cookware as they roam the produce section, allowing Kroger to make the sale — instead of another retailer.

Inmar study: 45% of shoppers load digital coupons to loyalty cards

AUTHOR Dan Alaimo PUBLISHED March 19, 2018

Dive Brief:

  • Forty-five percent of shoppers have loaded digital coupons onto their loyalty cards, according to the Inmar Promotion Industry Analysis and its Shopper Behavior Study, reported by Supermarket News.
  • Coupons are changing shopper behavior. The study found that of shoppers with coupons, 39.1% said they would buy a product sooner; 39% said they would buy a brand they otherwise would not have considered; 38.5% said they would buy more of a product; 29.9% said they would buy a different product within a brand; and 18.1% said they would switch back to a product.
  • Digital coupons have seen five successive years of double-digit increases, with the strongest growth in share of redemption for load-to-card, which is now up 587% from 2013 to 2017. Print-at-home and free-standing inserts (FSIs) showed declines in that same time period, with minus 27% and minus 21%, respectively.

 Dive Insight:

Coupons are changing with the times and have never been more important for driving traffic, sales and brand conversions.

Brands and retailers need to meet shoppers wherever they are on the shopping journey, Holly Pavlika, senior vice president of marketing and content for Inmar, wrote in Supermarket News. In particular, moms from the millennial generation look for offers before, during and after a shopping journey. Convenience and savings on digital and mobile are big drivers, she said.

This means paper coupons distributed with FSIs in the Sunday newspaper must still be considered, as they still dominate distribution and redemption. For example, FSIs accounted for 90.8% of all coupons distributed and 34.6% of all coupons redeemed in 2017. While smaller in number, digital coupons were higher in percentage of redemption. Load-to-card incentives were 1.1% of all coupons distributed, but 10.9% of all coupons redeemed. Seventy-seven percent of shoppers said they had a shopping list for the store, and 44% said they looked for digital coupons before the shopping trip. The ease of putting the coupon discount on the loyalty card makes this a more painless exercise compared to clipping paper coupons.

In a related finding, marketers distributed 38% more of the load-to-card coupons last year, compared to the year before. Redemption of digital coupons increased 67% in that time span. Additionally, Huffington Post has reported that 80% of consumers are more likely to purchase and interact with a brand that offers an engaging mobile encounter.

To stay on top of this changing consumer behavior, supermarket operators must be prepared to accept — and promote — all kinds of coupons. Advanced point-of-sale systems make this possible, and also enable to monitor purchases with coupons for fraud. Among regular load-to-card coupon users, 90% reported that the coupon changed their shopping behavior — an opportunity retailers shouldn’t ignore.

Washington Post Article on Stacking

Tech has taken the work out of couponing. Here’s how to save big with little effort.

Technology is also able to help CPG marketers better manage this situation.  Contact us and ask about our CPG-tested Stack Track(TM) solution.

Understanding Mobile Users

http://www.instantshift.com/2017/01/04/understanding-mobile-users/

Mind-Boggling Moneymakers Cause Chaos and Controversy

Source: October 14, 2016 in Coupons In The News

Need some Lipton tea or Fruttare frozen fruit bars? Well, Publix will pay you twenty bucks for each set of sixteen that you take off their shelves.

At least they were, until they realized the extent of the stacking scenario they had enabled, and put a stop to it – upsetting some extreme couponers, and store staffers who’ve had to deal with the fallout.

The Florida-based chain had couponers in six Southern states salivating over a couple of store coupon/sale/instant rebate combinations, after previews started emerging for the weekly ad that began midweek. There’s a promotion offering an instant rebate of $5, for every $15 worth of select Pepsico, General Mills and Unilever products purchased. Those products are also on sale. And there happens to be a store coupon available for $5 off 2 select Unilever products, two of which are part of the promotion.

So consider this scenario – boxes of Fruttare bars are on sale this week for $2.50 each. They’re eligible for the $5/2 coupon, and the $5 off $15 rebate. Buy six boxes for $15, use three $5 coupons to get them for free, get the $5 instant rebate on top of it, and earn $5 in overage (which Publix allows).

Or buy ten boxes of Lipton tea (or a couple of fillers and eight boxes, if your store sticks to the maximum allowed per store policy). They’re on sale for $1.50 each. Buy $15 worth, use five $5 coupons, get the $5 instant rebate, and earn a whopping $15 in overage.

Buy both brands, over multiple shopping trips, and you earn a twenty-dollar bill every time you set foot in a Publix store this week.

But not anymore.

If you’ve ever held onto a good coupon, only to have it expire the day before a big sale – or if a coupon comes out just as soon as a sale is over – that’s no accident. Stores and manufacturers typically aim to plan their promotions carefully, to avoid ill-advised scenarios that provide shoppers with overlapping discounts.

But occasionally there are mistakes, oversights and “what-were-they-thinking” moments like the one that’s caused a frenzy at Publix.

Many shoppers reported that shelves full of Lipton and Fruttare were cleared within minutes of stores opening on the first day of the sale. Some proudly posted their receipts on social media to show off their hauls, and their profits.

And many others started complaining, once Publix began scrambling to contain the damage and put limits on the deal.

“Stores have set a limit of 2 on certain items. So how are we going to make the $15.00 mark?” one shopper asked on Publix’s Facebook page. “How can we take advantage of a sale if we are not even allowed enough items to make it work?”

 

One shopper’s store manager “would only accept two of those particular coupons and they refused to honor your published policy of taking eight identical coupons,” another comment read.

Limiting quantities “just shows a lack of preparation for their own sales. Ridiculous,” complained another.

“As you might imagine, due to these great deals, we have some stores who are running low on product or are completely sold out of product,” Publix spokesperson Maria Brous told Coupons in the News. “We’ve had to make some tough decisions in an effort to provide the best opportunity for the majority of our customers to benefit from these deals.” Therefore, she said, “stores are limiting quantity deals and we are also limiting the $5.00 off coupon to two per household, per day.”

(Update: Later, Publix relaxed the limits on the coupon, and on the number of participating items that can be purchased. “Due to overwhelming feedback from our customers, we decided to remove these limitations and now there is a maximum of 8 coupons allowed,” Publix explained. In addition, stores “should allow customers to purchase enough product to meet the $15 minimum.”)

Meantime, the $5/2 coupon is being retroactively interpreted to apply to two different participating brands, and not two of the same brands – so one coupon can’t be used to buy, say, two boxes of Lipton. “The coupon does not state you have to mix and match,” one Facebook commenter grumbled. “Therefore you are not following your own coupon policy and may actually be classified as false advertising.” Added another: “They are punishing their customers for their careless advertising team’s mistake.”

Typically, Publix lets store managers set limits or determine how store coupons are to be applied at their discretion. It’s a relatively rare move for the corporate office to impose limits chain-wide – especially after a weekly ad is out, instead of spelling it out in the ad itself.

That has upset many shoppers who missed their chance to get paid for buying Lipton and Fruttare. Others, meanwhile, find the limits reasonable and perfectly understandable. The other area of disagreement, is whether coupon blogs and message boards that promoted the stacking scenario, were merely pointing out a completely legitimate deal – or taking avaricious advantage of a marketing error, before the stores and participating manufacturers realized what had hit them.

I Heart Publix” blogger Michelle Atwood is on the side of not promoting such deals.

“By highlighting the deal (or telling people to RUN) it just encourages shelf-clearing, which is not something that I want to support,” she told Coupons in the News. “I know Publix will be overwhelmed by folks wanting the items, and just don’t feel that it’s appropriate for me to add to the chaos.”

So why would a store offer such overlapping deals at all? Is it a case of a retailer or manufacturer’s coupon-issuing left hand not knowing what the promotions-creating right hand is doing? For all the careful calibrating that brands usually do to avoid concurrent promotions on the same items, that clearly didn’t happen this time.

Unless, that is, Unilever purposely pulled out all the stops to send boxes of Lipton and Fruttare flying off the shelves. And if that’s the case, they certainly succeeded.

It may be safe to assume, though, that paying people to take their products is not something they’re likely to do again anytime soon. So if you managed to stock up on Lipton and Fruttare this week, hope your supply lasts you until the next time a deal like this comes along. If there is a next time.

 

(Update: See “Publix Pays the Price for Outrageous Overage“)