Finding out how to take advantage of grocery shoppers’ online penchant for their favourite products will help suppliers increase market share, says Gilad Simhony, chief executive officer of independent grocery shopping and comparison website mySupermarket.co.uk
In the e-commerce world there has rightly been a huge focus on how shoppers use the search tool and how both retailers and brands can create a greater experience and in fact increase market share by improving the search experience. Take Alibaba, who in their efforts to compete with Amazon, invested approximately $10 million in Israeli start-up Twiggle in June 2016. The company improves the quality of online-shopping searches by using machine learning and natural language processing to guess what shoppers are after.
Search, however, comes in second when it comes to e-grocery shoppers making product selections, with the Favourites shelf being the most important purchase path in the grocery sector. Some 53% of shoppers fill up their basket from the Favourites shelf, according to the customer science company dunnhumby.
MySupermarket has found that not only are more shoppers starting their e-grocery experience in Favourites, but those that do, also spend more on their shop, add more products to their basket, and spend less time on their shop before completing their checkout.
That so many shoppers navigate their online groceries via Favourites – often ignoring the rest of the website – poses a huge challenge to those brands that might not find themselves in said Favourites. When you consider that, according to IGD, online grocery shopping is expected to almost double in value from 2015 to 2020, Favourites should be the channel that brands pay the most attention to.
How can brands better utilise Favourites to increase market share?
Get the facts: Knowledge is power and brands need to understand better where they rank in shoppers’ Favourites. Brands should compare their category’s share of favourites in each retailer and against key competitors. Additionally, tracking shopper loyalty within Favourites is a great barometer to gauge whether shoppers are even considering between yourselves and competitors.
Increase Favourites share: With more insights about when and how Favourites shoppers engage (or not) with your products, brands should work closely with the supermarkets to increase share of Favourites. Use other popular channels such as search, product placement within departments and special offers to get your products in this crucial online real estate.
I ♡ your NPD: newly launched FMCG products should incorporate Favourites metrics as key goals when tracking the success of NPDs. With thousands of grocery products launched every year brand managers should pay close attention to Favourites trends.
Favourites no longer should be the missing link in brand managers’ efforts to grow market share.
For more information, to discover brand performance with retailer Favourites or to access analysis contact [email protected]
