MARKET WATCH
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Study Connects CPG Website Usage and In-Store Purchase Behavior
Visitors to CPG brand websites buy 37% more in retail stores than non-visitors to the brand site, says a groundbreaking study from Accenture, comScore, and dunnhumbyUSA. The study aims to help consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketers better understand the link between consumers’ usage of brand websites and their in-store brand buying behavior
To maximize impact, the study also concluded, website content needs to be updated regularly and contain brand value messaging that both engages visitors while also providing compelling reasons for them to purchase the brand at retail.
“CPG marketers currently invest millions of dollars in their brand websites, and the results of this study confirm the importance of this investment. Brand websites can attract and influence the behavior of the most valuable segments of any brand’s franchise,” said comScore vice president Mike Zeman. “But it’s clear that the content and utilities on these sites need to be highly engaging if they are to attract a meaningful numbers of visitors. Marketers who do this successfully stand to gain an attractive return by growing their brands’ sales in retail stores.”
The study found that visitors to CPG brand websites are valuable and frequent buyers of the brand in retail stores, completing 41% more transactions than non-visitors. As a result, brand websites are able to attract heavier-than-average brand buyers, who spend 37% more on the brand in retail stores than non-visitors. Website visitors also are also heavier buyers within a brand’s product category, spending 53% more category dollars than non-visitors.
John LaRocca, Vice President, Strategic Partnerships at dunnhumbyUSA, said, “The research highlights the significant yet underutilized potential of brand websites and digital communications as key drivers for building customer loyalty and preference for CPG brands. Since website visitors have higher affinity to the brand and the overall product category, there is an opportunity for brand marketers to drive loyalty through personalizing the website experience, catering to the preferences of their best customers.”
More Trade Promotion Outreach & Education Available
TradeInsight, a global provider of Trade Promotion Management (TPM) solutions, has launched its Alliance Partner Program to further educate and extend its outreach within the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry.
The announcement of a network partnership program for Brokers, Consultants, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) dealers and other specialized CPG solution providers arrives as many manufacturers are seeking advice on trade spend best practices and new solutions to gain visibility into trade spend activity.
By joining the TradeInsight Alliance Partner Program, companies can expand their existing portfolio of solutions to include a market-leading trade promotion software solution that will aid clients in transforming their trade promotion efforts. Despite the importance of trade promotion effectiveness, most CPG manufacturers continue to manage the second greatest expense on their balance sheet with manual processes and homegrown tools.
TradeInsight will host a live webinar February 16 at 1:30 p.m. EDT to outline the Alliance Partner Program as well as the tangible benefits of collaborating with the debut partnership network. To learn more, visit www.tradeinsight.com/partner or call 813.620.3595.
Study Reveals ‘Share of Shopper’ for Certain Grocery Categories
The Center Store Mega-Study from VideoMining Corp. is already paying off with compelling data on shopper behavior in supermarkets. The research quantifies shopper behavior using video cameras to track customer movements throughout the store. The results show, for example, how shoppers react to certain categories on the shelf and on displays.
The study, which began six months ago in eight grocery stores operated by five different retailers around the country, uses up to 150 cameras per store to track shopper behavior. The next phase of the study, set for launch in three months, will track shoppers in 15 supermarkets from eight different retailers.
Preliminary data from the research, as reported recently by Supermarket News, show the performance of certain product categories relative to Center Store overall by measuring share of traffic, shopper engagement within the category — measured by the customer stopping — and sales relative to traffic and engagement.
The preliminary data reported by SN compared the share of shopper indices for six Center Store categories, with 100 being the average for all Center Store categories. The data measure main (in-aisle) product locations only.
For example, the preliminary data show that while beer indexed higher than carbonated beverages for exposure (188 vs. 131, respectively), carbonated beverages performed better on exposure unit response (499 vs. 337). Both categories did well on engagement response, implying that once customers stop, they are likely to buy, Tom Sullivan, president of VideoMining, told SN.
“The ‘share of shopper’ data provide a formal basis for comparing key performance characteristics of each category and identifying opportunities,” he said. “For example, which categories to target for increasing exposure or which categories to target for improving engagement.”
Shoppers Continue to Show Strong Interest in Coupons
More than 3.5 billion coupons for consumer packaged goods were redeemed in the U.S. in 2011 - a 6.1% increase over 2010, according to data from Inmar. While redemption activity in the first half of last year showed virtually no change from 2010, a 16% jump in coupon response in the third quarter of 2011 sparked the overall annual increase.
The increase in coupon redemption seen in 2011 continues an upward trend that began almost five years ago. After declining for decades, coupon redemption has increased 34.6% since 2006.
“Shoppers continue to love coupons. With consumer confidence flat, unemployment rates still a challenge and prices for most consumables on the rise, it’s now cool to be frugal -- to shop smartly. And, coupons are the vehicle consumers are using to do just that,” said Bob Carter, president of Inmar Promotion Services.
Having already processed more than 17 million digital coupons, Inmar has established itself as the industry leader in the growing digital promotions space. The company’s Digital Promotions Network provides digital offer exchange, point-of-sale redemption and transaction settlement capabilities for many of the nation’s leading retailers and manufacturers.
NPD Group to Acquire POS Data from Walmart
The NPD Group, provider of consumer and retail market research for several industries, will receive and analyze Walmart’s point-of-sale information for a wide range of general merchandise categories.
Under the agreement, NPD will receive sales data from Walmart U.S. stores and walmart.com. The agreement covers a broad set of general merchandise categories spanning the following Walmart merchandise units: Entertainment, Apparel, Home, Hardlines, and Toys. NPD and Walmart are working together to integrate Walmart information into NPD products.
NPD currently receives information from over 900 retailers representing 150,000 retail doors worldwide. The addition of Walmart data will enhance this information.
“Our agreement with NPD will provide Walmart with deeper insights into what consumers are buying and what they are looking to buy,” said Cindy Davis, executive vice president of Walmart global customer insights. “We are sharing our point-of-sale information so that we’re able to identify opportunities sooner and work with our manufacturer partners to develop more impactful customer-driven programs in the future.”
Walmart will be using NPD as the primary provider of data for the general merchandise categories tracked by NPD and NPD DisplaySearch as a new supplier of forecasting analysis for the electronics team. NPD recently signed an agreement with Sam’s Club to receive point-of-sale information from Sam’s Club and samsclub.com.
DemandTec Strengthens Cloud Analytics Suite
DemandTec, the collaborative analytics cloud for retailers and consumer products companies, said all existing customers will benefit from its stronger cloud analytic suite. The update is designed to enable retailers and manufacturers to discover more, proactively shape consumer demand, and engage more intelligently with shoppers
This release delivers new features spanning assortment optimization, transfer pricing, shopper insights, master calendar, and partner apps on the DemandTec network.
"DemandTec's mission is to revolutionize decision-making for retailers and consumer products companies and give them the tools to always deliver the right product, at the right price, in the right place, and at the right time," said Marc Dietz, Vice President of Marketing for DemandTec. "This product release delivers on that mission with deeper analytics, improved app and network usability, and faster time to success for our customers and community members."
New Perspectives into Consumer Consumption of Digital Media
To provide new insights into how quickly consumers are embracing digital media, which demographic groups are most interested in near-term engagement, and what strategies to use to best engage these audiences, SymphonyIRI has released its new segmentation solution called DigitaLink.
The solution leverages SymphonyIRI’s Consumer Network Panel, MarketPulse research and analytic capabilities to segment shoppers into unique profiles, enabling CPG and retail marketers to effectively ramp-up sales and marketing efforts with passionate online consumers.
“With DigitaLink, we identified five distinct groups of Internet users, all of whom are active online in one way or another, but access the Web in different ways, have different comfort levels with technology and various attitudes about how much they want to engage with it and the role they want the technology to play in their lives,” said Larry Levin, executive vice president and general manager, Consumer Insights, SymphonyIRI. “Digging a level deeper, DigitaLink helps assess purchase patterns for each segment while also providing a tool that can be used to classify these shoppers.”
Here are the five shopper segments:
Show Me the Money These shoppers focus on using digital technology to save money by frequently searching for and downloading coupons online. They may occasionally write product reviews or post comments on blogs.
Digitize Me! These shoppers have incorporated digital media across the board in their lives and participate in various online activities. They have a higher tendency of interacting with companies and brands on social networks and are also more willing to post their opinions online.
Technophobes This group rarely searches online for product information or coupons, or interacts on blogs, leaving most online activity to e-mail.
Socializers These shoppers use the Internet primarily as a means of communication versus a shopping resource.
Wired for Work Most consumers who fall in this segment own a smartphone and are driven by digital media, but use the technology primarily for work-related tasks.
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