New IRI Report Finds Shoppers Spreading Their Dollars Across More Channels and Store Formats
Retailers Must Not Only Retain Current Customers, But Also Move Them Up
the Loyalty Ladder To Drive Growth
CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Consumers’ grocery shopping patterns are quickly evolving as
just-in-time shopping is becoming the norm. Since there are more places
to shop, and more products to choose from than ever before, IRI®
is taking a closer look at how retailers can find true organic growth by
maximizing the value of their current shoppers in today’s fragmented
marketplace in its Times & Trends Report, “The
Omnichannel Journey: Translating Big Data into a Prescription for
Growth.”
Quick trips—those “I need it now” grocery excursions—account for
two-thirds of shopping visits and one-third of grocery expenditures. And
these trips are not made at one store or even one channel. In fact,
there is a major shift in how consumers are approaching grocery
shopping, because they are spreading their money across more channels
and formats as they shop to fulfill their needs.
“Retailers are grappling to not only understand consumers’ varied
shopping patterns, but also capture shares of their increasingly
fragmented shopping trips,” said Susan Viamari, vice president of
Thought Leadership for IRI. “Retailers really need a clear 360-degree
view of shopper spending to grow. This perspective will help them know
what their key and target shoppers are looking for, so they can engage
the shopper where, when and how it matters most to them. Those retailers
that can personalize the shopping experience move their customers up the
loyalty ladder, increasing the lifetime value of those customers and
supporting growth along the way.”
Four Steps to Success
Industry experts estimate that it costs anywhere from five to 25 times
more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an old one. With
this in mind, IRI encourages retailers to follow four steps to maximize
the value of each and every one of those customers and capture share: 1)
reward current customers, 2) grow current customers, 3) activate new
shoppers and 4) reactivate customers that have lapsed. Since attracting
new customers is expensive, the key to success for retailers is to get
the most out of their current customers, rather than just focusing on
attracting new customers, to minimize costs.
Maximizing customer loyalty begins with understanding high-value
customers and assessing their level of loyalty. And to move customers up
the loyalty ladder and even acquire new customers, retailers need to
shift from the standard category management perspective to a customer
management perspective.
Loyalty programs are flush with information about members—from category
and brand preferences to price and promotion sensitivity. This
information is essential to developing programs that target and resonate
with a retailer’s best customers.
Personalization Begins with Knowing the Shopper
Personalization will be the crux of future retail success. This does not
mean retailers should abandon mass-marketing programs. Rather, the
future will be about supplementing mass efforts with targeted programs
aimed at deepening a customer’s relationship with a retailer. Getting
this right means that retailers need to know their customers inside-out,
so they have the right marketing programs, the right products and
assortments with the right prices, and marketing messages aimed at
positively influencing customer loyalty and driving activation.
Targeting these high-value and potential customers is not easy.
Traditional scanner and demographic data and frequent shopper program
data provide some visibility into important shopper attitudes and
behaviors. However, this does not provide the all-important 360-degree
view of shopping and spending habits, or visibility into rest of market
and national coverage.
“The path to purchase has become a maze of twists and turns, with
thousands of points of interaction along the way,” added Viamari.
“Retailers need to harness the vast sea of big data around shopper
attitudes and behaviors and bring it together in integrated and
real-time fashion. Only then will they understand what is moving the
needle today, and predict and prepare for what tomorrow will bring, so
that they can consistently serve their customers in a highly
personalized and engaging fashion.”
About the Report
The latest IRI Times & Trends “The Omnichannel Journey:
Translating Big Data into a Prescription for Growth” is a free
report available from IRI. To gain the 360-degree view of customers
outlined in the report, tap into the most comprehensive end-to-end
customer insights to activation measurement platform available in the
industry, which includes IRI Liquid Data™, IRI Consumer and
Shopper Insights Advantage™, IRI ProScores™, IRI
Shopper KnowledgeBase™, IRI Multi-Touch Attribution Modeling
and IRI Lift™, IRI Audience Builder™ and IRI Activate™. To
download the report, visit: http://www.iriworldwide.com/en-US/Insights/Publications/Retailers-and-Personalization.
About the IRI Partner Ecosystem
IRI fundamentally believes that delivering differentiated growth for
clients, driven by truly personalized marketing activation, requires
deep, highly integrated partnering with a variety of best-of-breed
companies. As such, IRI works closely with a broad range of industry
leaders to create innovative joint solutions, services and access to
capabilities to help its clients more effectively compete in their
various markets and exceed their growth objectives. IRI is committed to
its partnership philosophy and continues to actively enhance its
ecosystem of partners through alliances, joint ventures, acquisitions
and affiliations. The IRI Partner Ecosystem includes such companies as Adobe,
The Boston Consulting Group, comScore, Experian, GfK,
Gigwalk, Ipsos, Kantar, MasterCardAdvisors, MaxPoint, MillwardBrown
Digital, Mu Sigma, Oracle, SPINS, Univision and
others.
About IRI
IRI is a leading provider of big data, predictive analytics and
forward-looking insights that help CPG, OTC healthcare organizations,
retailers and media companies grow their businesses. With the largest
repository of purchase, media, social, causal and loyalty data, all
integrated on an on-demand cloud-based technology platform, IRI helps to
guide its more than 5,000 clients around the world in their quests to
remain relentlessly relevant, capture market share, connect with
consumers and deliver market-leading growth. A confluence of major
external events—a revolution in consumer buying, big data coming into
its own, advanced analytics and automated consumer activation—is leading
to a seismic shift in drivers of success in all industries. Ensure your
business can leverage data at www.iriworldwide.com.
Contacts
IRI
Shelley Hughes
Shelley.Hughes@IRIworldwide.com
+1
312.474.3675
