Retailers Making Due with Less – What Does this Mean for The Customer Experience?

A report recently released by The Globe and Mail revealed that some retailers who are looking to boost productivity to combat increasing competition are scaling back their workforces. The article reports that over 45,000 retail jobs were eliminated between 2008 and 2011, with only a small hiring spree in 2012.

This is largely because of the online e-commerce boom. To save on head count and labour costs many retailers have turned to expanding their e-commerce portfolio which leads to increased margins and reduced overhead and infrastructure costs – a retailers dream!

So what do these major changes mean for the customer experience? Well, for the customer who still likes to visit bricks and mortar retail stores (like the grocery store for example), a decreased workforce may mean longer line ups, substandard retail merchandising and an overall reduced customer experience.

A reduced customer experience can bring negative consequences to both the retailer and the brands who have their products listed. A customer who has a bad customer experience with a brand because product is not tagged or not in-stock or easily accessible can cause the brand to lose the customer – perhaps even permanently if the customer tries another brand that they like better.  The same is true for a retailer whose store is cluttered, confusing to navigate, short staffed, and/or has long line ups. This in fact can cause some customers to shift their attention to e-commerce solutions and very likely not yours if the consumer has already had a negative customer experience.

With the growth of social media, customers now refuse to ignore a bad customer experience, and instead will take to their social networks to vent about their frustrations. Since consumers are highly influenced by the things they read on their social networks, the customer experience is now paramount, and making sure that the customer is happy when they leave the store, especially if you want them to return.

Retail intelligence is a smart way to combat these challenges. When your product is being sold at a retail location it is essential that you are aware of the customer experience – this is true whether you are a CPG brand or a retailer.

There are two main reasons that brands and retailers use retail intelligence. The first is to improve the customer experience at the point of sale. The second is to see what the competition is doing. Both of these things are crucial if you want to maintain control over your brand and improve customer experience while still staying on top of the competition.

Retail intelligence through planogram audits and mystery shopping allow you to improve your retail merchandising by making sure that products are being tagged, re-stocked, and located where they need to be. The only way to improve your customer experience is to be really aware of what is happening on the ground so that you can make small adjustments that lead to increased sales and customer retention!

One thing is for certain – retailers’ highest expense is the cost of labour. It can be tempting to cut back, but decisions like reducing your labour force must be thoroughly thought through. The retail industry is so competitive that attempting to make due with less can actually be counter-productive. Retailers who do not want to maintain a full blown workforce and prefer to bring in retail and merchandising support should consider aligning with a retail merchandising company that can provide retail support on an “as needed basis”. Brands: you have little control over the actions of your retailers but stand to lose the most. Many brands also turn to retail merchandising companies to take the power out of the hands of retailers and to have more control over their own retail merchandising.

For more information about improving the customer experience through retail intelligence, or to find out more about our other merchandising services, please visit www.storesupport.ca or call 905-847-6513.

Why You Should Never Leave Your Visual Merchandising Solely in the Hands Your Retailers

When consumers are shopping they are generally in a hurry and brands have to really go out of their way to catch the attention of consumers passing by. Visual merchandising is very important for this reason! Because visual merchandising covers everything from developing planograms to marketing campaigns that involve 3 dimensional displays, visual merchandising will often mean the difference between a new customer stopping to look at and possibly purchasing your product and them deciding to just keep on walking. Your visual merchandising should attract, engage and motivate the customer towards purchasing your product. 

If you want to make sure that your visual merchandising is effective it must be executed according to your plan which is why it is best not to leave your visual merchandising in the hands of your retailers.

When you have a marketing campaign planned that incorporates a visual merchandising display it is important that you validate that the displays are set up according to your directions and placed according to your plan.

All too often we see brands who send their visual merchandising displays and product to their retailers only to find out later when sales are not achieving expectations that the visual merchandising displays were not placed where they were supposed to be, or maybe it didn’t even make it out onto the sales floor! Even worse, there have been cases where, when a display ran out of product, instead of re-stocking it, the retailer threw another brand’s product in the display unit. This happens more often then you may think!  

If you don’t work with a visual merchandising company who is actively following up on these types of issues, you may be thinking right now that this isn’t happening with your product. Well think again.

You may be thinking that your retailers handle your in-store merchandising and your current sales are good so this couldn’t be happening. Well, if you think that sales are good, imagine what they could look like?

Leveraging retail intelligence and performing an audit on your retailers, you can identify deficiencies in your retail merchandising, including your visual merchandising, and come up with a plan to address them. Let’s face it, you need retailers to list your products and you have little control over what they do. You do however have control over what you do.

If this is something that you have been thinking of doing but were not sure the cost or how to go about it, consider interviewing some merchandising companies. Merchandising companies offer outsourced solutions that are generally affordable for even smaller brands. Merchandising companies can not only audit your retailers but can also help you come up with a plan to manage issues that are identified in the audit. Merchandising companies can also help you to implement your plan to ensure that it is a success.

For more information about visual merchandising or about our merchandising services please visit www.storesupport.ca or call 905-847-6513

Have Eyes on the Ground: How Retail Merchandising Companies Keep You in The Know

When your product is listed with retailers it is important to know what is happening at the point of purchase. Retail merchandising companies perform a myriad of services for brands at the retail level. Retail merchandising companies generally have national, experienced teams of retail professionals who routinely visit most retailers on behalf of their clients.  

One very important function performed by retail merchandising companies is retail intelligence. Retail intelligence notifies brands regarding what is occurring with their products and competition at the retail level. 

Retail intelligence is vital to different sized companies for different reasons. Newly listed brands need to ensure a flawless customer experience working towards driving good sales so that their product can stay listed. Retail intelligence may include a schedule to ensure planogram compliance and to make sure that product is in stock, properly tagged and out on the floor.

Where large brands are concerned the stakes are even higher, as is competition. You will need to be aware of what your competitors are doing; are they running a sale or promotion? Bigger brands must be agile and react to changes in pricing by competitors to maintain their positions in their markets.

Private label brands big and small are faced with the struggle of competing with store brands. This is another big reason why retail intelligence is so important. Retail employees have their priorities and one of them includes ensuring that the retailer’s products are always stocked and on the shelves, even sometimes before re-stocking your product. Retail intelligence can identify challenges within specific retailers to enable you to devise a plan to improve productivity.

Retail merchandising companies keep you in the know because they can essentially act as your boots on the ground. You can provide them with data points that you want collected from the retailers where your product is sold. They can report back retail intelligence to you and even take action on your behalf if something has gone awry.

The intelligence you can gather through a retail intelligence company provides you with the opportunity to improve customer experience by doing everything possible to make purchasing your product easy. Knowing what happens at the retail level will result in a consistent experience for your customer, and the reliability of always finding your product in stock and on the shelves will result in your customers making your product a staple on their grocery list.

At the end of the day you just can’t count on retailers to provide good retail merchandising all of the time. Retail employees are busy, especially during peak times (your best chance to sell). This is when things can get even more hectic often meaning product will appear out of stock when in fact it is in the back and just hasn’t been replenished. The reality is, to be in the know, you have to make yourself aware of what’s happening on the ground.

For more information about retail intelligence or if you would like information about our retail merchandising services please visit www.storesupport.ca or call 905-847-6513.

Don’t Let a Problem Crush Your Brand: The Importance of Smart Retail Management

If you sell a CPG brand at the retail level, you are no doubt aware that retail management and brand reputation management go hand-in-hand. Getting consumers to recognize your brand and building customer loyalty is critical if you want your brand to succeed. But sometimes unforeseen challenges can arise. Challenges that occur at the point of purchase should be your top priority. Your customer is your bread and butter and the ‘stakes are high’ if customers have poor experiences with your brand when they try to purchase it at their preferred retailer.

This day and age things run at a very fast pace. The customer experience at the retail level can immediately reflect on your brand’s reputation. Customers who become frustrated because a product is out of stock, or not properly tagged resulting in a hold up at the checkout counter can take to their mobile devices and post witty thoughts to their Twitter or Facebook page. Not only have you lost a customer but now they have negatively influenced those in their networks about your brand. This is why a key component of strong brand reputation management is smart retail management.

Smart retail management leads to increased sales and customer retention. Sales will be needed and, especially in the case of smaller brands, poor sales can lead to retailers de-listing your products.

To better understand how you can improve your retail management, let’s explore some of the top ways that a customer can have a negative in-store experience with a brand?

1.     Product is out of stock. Sometimes product is not on the shelf but is in the back. When retailers’ employees become busy, re-stocking your product can fall to the wayside. When a customer is in the grocery store and sees that a favourite product is out of stock, some may seek out the product at an alternate retailer, but most will simply try the same product by a different brand. This is dangerous because if the consumer likes the other brand’s product, you could see a shift in the customer’s loyalty to your brand. One way to stay ahead of the competition is to have a plan in place to ensure that you are on top of what is happening with product at the retail level.

2.     Product is moved. Unbeknownst to you and against your planogram your product is moved. Again, another frustrating experience for the customer. Will they look around to try to find your product or will they just buy the next available thing?

3.     Product is on the shelf but not priced. Would you buy something without knowing the cost? Not likely. When product isn’t priced it can make it difficult for a consumer to make the decision to purchase.

4.     Product is improperly labeled. Product that is improperly labeled can cause confusion for the consumer.

5.     UPC scanning issues at the point of sale. This is a big one. When the UPC code on your product doesn’t scan properly, this can cause your customers to get backed up at the checkout counter.

Smart retail management will include having retail merchandising contingencies and resources in place to make you aware of problems at the retail level and to enable you to address them quickly.

For more information about retail management or for information about our retail management solutions please visit www.storesuppport.ca or call 905-847-6513.

Grocery Manufacturers Association Study Reveals Why Your Experiential Marketing Should Be At the Top Of Your ‘To Do’ List!

A study released recently by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) stated that 70% of retail purchasing decisions are made in-store, and that 68% of purchases are made on impulse. Really, how many people actually walk into the grocery store (even with a list) and walk out with only those items they intended to purchase before entering? Not very many! There is a huge opportunity for you to shift consumer loyalty your way.

One very effective way is through experiential marketing. Experiential marketing involves your brand directly engaging the customer in the store. Some experiential marketing campaigns involve coupons, discounts, ‘give aways’ or take away samples. We believe the best and most effective form of experiential marketing campaign performed in grocery stores is live product samplings.

Live demonstrations have a high probability of converting the prospect into becoming a customer. If a customer who samples your product likes it and feels that the price is right, they are likely to purchase. Running an experiential marketing campaign in the grocery store however is easier said than done. The representatives that administer your experiential marketing campaign must be outgoing and willing to stop passers-by to sample your product. They also must be knowledgeable about your product. For example, if you sell a food product or a product that has chemicals in it, the consumer may have questions about the product’s ingredients. Your representative is a direct reflection of your brand and their ability to knowledgably interact with the consumer it vital.

Experiential marketing is a science and should not be approached lightly. Experiential marketing is not achieved simply by putting a student in the grocery store in front of a table stocked with your product. Experiential marketing campaigns represent many opportunities, especially if you run your campaigns across multiple locations. The more coverage your experiential marketing campaign has, the more consumers you can reach. This will not only increase sales and brand recognition; an experiential marketing campaign is also an excellent way to gather product feedback and intelligence about your product.

Providing the representative who performs the experiential marketing campaign with data points to capture opinions about the customers’ experiences with your product can enable you to improve not only your products but also your packaging and marketing messaging. Having a plan to mine the data and report statistically about the results from your experiential marketing campaign will help you report on the results with success and provide valuable statistics that you can use in future business cases and business planning.

One of the biggest things that the GMA study has done is validate the opportunity and value proposition inherent in an experiential marketing campaign. If 68% of purchasers are making their buying decisions on impulse and if you can capture even a fraction of this audience through your experiential marketing campaign, then your campaign will be a success! If you don’t have the resources in place to facilitate your campaign there are experiential marketing companies who can guide you through the process. Experiential marketing companies can provide you with the staff and technology to make the most of your experiential marketing campaign both in-store and afterwards.

For more information about experiential marketing please visit www.storesupport.ca or call 905-847-6513.

Retail Merchandising Solutions to Quickly Overcome Challenges after Your Product Has Reached the Store

If you sell CPG products at retail then you know just how important good retail merchandising is. While we all hope that the retailers where products are sold will have control over in-store retail merchandising, this is often not the case, especially where brands with vast retail coverage are concerned. Merchandising challenges can directly impact the customer experience, customer retention and your bottom line.

Look at something as simple as UPC codes that aren’t scanning properly or aren’t on some products at all – it happens all the time. When a customer is in a hurry and at the grocery check-out and sees that the cashier is about to call a price check, do they wait or just forgo purchasing the product? Or have you ever experienced seeing a product on sale but then when you get to the check out, the UPC scans the non-sale price, causing you to wait while the store figures out what the actual price of the product is? How frustrating is that!

In retail merchandising time is not on your side. Each day hundreds and perhaps even thousands and tens of thousands (if you have national coverage) of consumers have interactions with your brand. Each day that goes by when your product has UPC scanning issues, or if your product is out of stock, moved, or improperly packaged or labeled, etc… is costing you more than just your lost sales. The CPG industry is competitive and consumers have so many choices that holding on to customers who have made your brand a part of their shopping list by going above and beyond the call of duty to ensure positive customer experiences is crucial.

Your ability to be agile and adapt to retail merchandising challenges can quickly make or break your success at the retail level. The number one merchandising solution that we recommend to brands that sell at retail is to have their own boots on the ground.

Having your own brand ambassadors on the ground who routinely visit retail locations to ensure that your retail merchandising is in order is the best way to learn quickly of retail merchandising issues. This will enable you to respond to retail merchandising challenges quickly.

When thinking about retail merchandising solutions, think about technology. Implementing technology that enables your merchandising team to transmit data and images in real time will keep your brand ahead of the competition.

You may be thinking that this is easier said than done, especially if you have coverage in many different retail locations. Sure, there is value in trying to build this infrastructure internally but many companies have learned that it is often less expensive to go with a pro rather than to re-invent the wheel.

Good retail merchandising companies will have the resources, infrastructure and coverage to be able to support your retail merchandising needs at a fraction of the cost of trying to do so internally. Whatever the retail merchandising solution you choose, if you want to compete, paying close attention to your retail merchandising is a must!

For more information about overcoming merchandising retail challenges and our retail merchandising solutions please visit www.storesupport.ca or call 905-847-6513.

Walking the Line: Post-Holiday Staff Reductions Directly Impact Merchandising Services

So the crazy holiday season is behind us – that means we can pay less attention to providing good customer service, right? Wrong!! Making sure your consumer has a good customer service experience, no matter what time of year it is, is vital. Make sure your merchandising company offers merchandising services that ensure a great customer service experience. 

Often after the holidays, retailers decrease their staff significantly because they think they don’t need those workers. But what kind of impact is this going to have on your brand? Shedding holiday staff is understandable, however retailers sometimes cut too deep which can have a devastating impact on brands. If there are not enough staff members around to make sure your stock is replenished or that customers are getting answers to their questions, customer service rates will suffer which can result in the consumer shifting loyalty from the retailer. Or worse, if their bad experience was associated trying to purchase one of your brands that was out of stock or not properly tagged, it is your brand that can suffer a shift in brand loyalty when the consumers decide to try something else that is in stock. 

Think about it this way – if you go into the local grocery store and receive poor customer service are you really going to be interested in returning to that store? Probably not. What if you enter a store and ask an employee to retrieve stock from the back and are told ‘I’m busy’ or ‘If it’s not there it’s out of stock’  without even looking, that’s not going to make you jump at the chance to go back there next week. Working with a merchandising company that offers merchandising services to combat these challenges is crucial. 

But if you are a brand that sells its products at retail, how can you make sure that your customers are receiving good customer service? A merchandising company that offers merchandising services like mystery shopping and planogram compliance can make sure that your products are on the shelves, in the right place, and priced correctly. They can also make sure that your planograms are executed properly and that a retailer’s staff members are actually doing their job.

Don’t just take our word for it. Right Now Technologies’ Customer Experience Impact Report spells out exactly how crucial it is for consumers to have a good customer service experience. Check out these stats:

-          Over 80% of consumers state that they are willing to pay up to 25% more in order to get good customer service.

-          Almost 90% of consumers actually started purchasing from a competitor after getting fed up because of a poor customer service experience.

A merchandising company that works to ensure that your consumers are having a good customer service experience can help maintain those points of distinction that differentiate you from your competitors. Relying on the retailer where your brand is located can spell disaster. Taking advantage of the merchandising services offered by a merchandising company can keep good customer service at your fingertips.

For more information about merchandising services and how they can ensure a good customer service experience, please contact Storesupport at 1-877-421-5081 or visit www.storesupport.ca.