As I’ve written about before, retail store visits are incredibly valuable to anyone working in consumer goods – whether for a supplier or a retailer. It’s a shame that we don’t do more of them (more on that topic here!). Even more of a shame, that we often don’t get full value out of the precious time we spend in stores. In this article, I’m going to share a list of all the things you can learn from a quality store visit. And read to the end, as there is an opportunity to receive a free guide to completing a quality store visit that I’m sure you and your team will appreciate.
Retail Store visits – the importance of the store
Before we go any further, let’s remind ourselves of just how important the store is. It is where all of our efforts stand or fail. Everything we do to create brand awareness, preference or salience is rather pointless if we don’t create a purchase too. All of our activation plans mean little if they are not executed. That relationship with the retailer, the great selling presentation and the tough negotiation: what is it worth if the implementation at store level doesn’t happen?
The store is critical to the success of our brand: it is definitely worth spending time there, I’m sure you’ll agree! But getting enough time to get out of the office is often a challenge, so while we are there, it would be best if we could create maximum value from every minute in the store. So what can we learn from a retail store visit?
store Visit Learnings – Implementation of our brand activation
First things first: yes it’s totally OK to go and look at your latest activation. You know you want to. I’d recommend that you don’t go there first, but if you insist then that’s OK. The store is where ‘the rubber hits the road’, seeing how our latest activation looks is important. It’s OK to be proud, but its also OK to be self-critical. Take a look: what would you do differently?
store Visit Learnings– Presentation of our brand to shoppers
It’s not just about the activation. Depending on the category, up to 90% of sales will happen at the home shelf, so of course we should go check. How does our brand look? How well do we stand out? Are we in stock? In the right place on the shelf? Visible? Not blocked by something else? Pricing, promotion, point of sale. We can see it all in the store!
store Visit Learnings – Competitors activity & strategy
Of course, while we’re in the category, we should check out our competitors. How are they performing on all the metrics we measure ourselves on? But also – what else can you see? Look beyond the tactics – can you see their strategy? Why would they do what they do? What are they trying to achieve? Has anything changed? And what does that mean for us?
And what is the relativity between our competitors and ourselves? Are we nearby physically? Is our messaging similar? How about pricing? Promotions?
store Visit Learnings – Retailer strategy
A store is (in theory) an articulation of a retailer’s strategy. So by observing the store, we can get clues about what our customer is trying to achieve. And this requires us to look beyond our category. To look at the entrance to the store, the checkouts, and as many aisles as our schedule will allow. What are they promoting. Where do they allocate space? Both at a macro category level, but also within a category? Are there patterns to the way they merchandise, or promote? Do similar companies get prime space? Does the same supplier perform well in all categories, or is it different? What might that tell you about the retailer’s strategy, about how they manage suppliers?
store Visit Learnings – Where our brand/category fits in the retailer’s strategy
This is why it is valuable to look at the whole store before going to our category. Understand what you can about the retailer’s total strategy, then compare and contrast that with your category. Is the strategy the same? Or different? How does our category fit with the retailers? If the retailer is highlighting healthy products in many categories, but not yours: ask yourself why not? There could be a reason. Or there could be an opportunity.
store Visit Learnings – Retailer policy
Often buyers will tell us that they can’t do a thing: for example ‘I can’t put a product on a gondola end without a price promotion’ or ‘all new products need to be on deal for 2 weeks at launch’. Check around the store to see if all categories are equal. I’ve often found other categories having different ‘rules’. Even better – if you find these things out before you present to the buyer, then you can pre-empt their objection by saying ‘I saw something similar in the cereals aisle last week’. That makes it really hard for a buyer to tell you ‘we can’t do that’!
store Visit Learnings – Retailer’s competitors
The tendency for sales people especially to only visit the stores of their own customers is understandable but limiting. Go see the competition. Not yours – the retailers? Compare what they are doing. Share this with the buyer and they might find it really valuable (remember that they don’t have much time to visit stores either!)
store Visit Learnings – Latest trends in shopper marketing
Obvious, but one that most people miss as we hurry to check on our activity. Looking around stores helps us understand what the market is up to. What are major companies up to. What are the smaller suppliers trying. Getting out of your own retailer’s stores can be particularly valuable here. In the UK, Marks & Spencer take very few branded products. So when I do a market visit with clients, I find that they rarely visit M&S. But M&S has been trialling some really great shopper marketing initiatives in the last couple of years: whenever we go to an M&S store we learn something!
store Visit Learnings – Shoppers & their behavior
Last but by no means least: retail store visits aren’t just about looking at stores and product and displays. It is also a brilliant opportunity to observe shoppers. We can watch what they do. What they interact with. What they ignore. What catches their attention. What they pick up, what they put back on the shelf. What they buy. And as long as we’re not too intrusive, we can politely ask them why. No, it’s not a replacement for rigorous shopper research, but it is a great way of building interesting hypotheses which can then lead to new research (be it primary or secondary). I always find huge value from market visits on every project we run.
A Guide: How to do a Retail store visit
That’s a lot of ground to cover, so over the years we’ve developed a simple guide or checklist that you can use to get more out of every retail store visit. If you’d like a copy of the guide, then go to the LinkedIn post here and add a comment saying, ‘yes please’. My team will send over a copy of the guide immediately.
And if you’d like to come on a market visit with me or one of the team, please get in touch and we’ll see what we can schedule. On our market visits we create key learnings, exchange ideas, and at the end of the process you’ll have several new ideas and opportunities to test or take to market. And you’ll have got a chance to spend a few hours in stores – something we should all do more often. If you’d like to come on a market visit with me or one of my team, just get in touch now and we’ll sort something out.