Prime Positioning

Taken from a published study called How They Shop the Supermarket, this article illustrates how consumers shop supermarkets, revealing where they go, how long they spend in each location, how quickly they travel and what they purchase. The research conducted and published by in-store research firm, Sorensen Associates, utilizes a revolutionary electronic monitoring system called PathTracker, which tracks the shopper from the point at which she selects a cart or basket until she gets to the checkout register. In Part I, the general flow of traffic in stores is examined. Part II, will specifically address center aisles and the checkout for placement effectiveness. Merchandisers searching for optimum placement of displays have historically had to rely on sales data to gauge the effectiveness of one location over another. Controlled store tests can be useful at predicting optimum placement, but are expensive and are not without their real world limitations. More often, placement becomes a geopolitical negotiation between the interests of the manufacturer and retailer. But where is the consumer? Busy shopping the store the way they want to.By studying over 1 million transactions in a test store in a suburb of Portland, Oregon, Sorensen Associates has found distinct shopping patterns about how shoppers actually shop grocery stores. Sorensen developed a wireless shopper tracking system called PathTrackerî. Shopping carts and baskets are tagged with a signaling device which emits an inaudible signal every four seconds. An array of antennae around the store's perimeter captures the data, which is then analyzed for individual shoppers as well as aggregated to provide composite views of shopping in the store. Combining the data with supporting research, here's what we found:Not all real estate is the sameFirst, don't make the assumption that most shoppers shop the entire store. They are on a mission to get what they came for and to make it as quick as possible. Furthermore, if an item is not conveniently located, they are just as apt to leave with out it. Difficult to believe, but it's true. Sorensen has found that shoppers only shop 25% of the store on the average. In our full report, we show the typical patterns that occurred in the Portland test store: c-store, zig-zag, excursion, destination, etc. We were able to chart the speed of shopping in certain areas, what they purchased in the order they purchased them and how moving "underdeveloped" categories affected sales.Counter-clockwise around the perimeter rulesTo verify one of the most significant findings, we conducted an audit of 100 stores in six major markets. The audit confirmed what we found in the test store: shoppers have a definite preference to travel counter-clockwise around the store's perimeter or racetrack (see chart 1)By putting entrances on the left side of the store, shoppers are almost forced to move clockwise--opposite to their natural inclination. As a result, the study found that shoppers abandoned their trips sooner in left entry and center entry stores than in right entry stores. Data from the Portland test store revealed that counter-clockwise shoppers spend on an average of $2 more per trip. The lesson for POP placement is clear: The right half of the perimeter is generally going to be your most valuable real estate for displays. For a left-sided entrance, test the left side over the right side. Better yet, observe the flow of traffic yourself by positioning some people at the back of the store to observe and record the flow. Back to frontMost shopping actually happens from the back of the store to the front. They generally enter the store, follow the racetrack around to the right and end up at the end of the back of the first aisle. At this point, the average shopper is about 70% through their trip. They have not done 70% of their purchasing, however. The highest purchasing activity of the entire trip occurs in the next 10-20% of time. Putting merchandise in front of them during this shopping frenzy is key. Where they go depends on their objective, but the most desirable spots for POP are often the back of the first aisle, down the first aisle and endcaps. Avoid dead centerThe second biggest learning for us is how little shopping activity actually takes place in the center aisles. Our data indicates that a large percentage of shoppers only shop the first 10 to 15 feet of an aisle, and often will even back out of the aisle to go in a different direction. While some shoppers conform to a zig-zag pattern up and down the aisles, more shoppers use only the perimeter with an occasional excursion into one end or the other of an aisle. It's a fallacy that if shoppers want something bad enough, they will search for it. Our research has shown that if it is not within their path, they tend to just skip it. Shopping is not a pastime that many relish. The quicker the trip the better.In fact, the average visits for any portion of a center-store aisle is typically less than one out of four shopping trips; with an average of only 14% reaching halfway down the aisle. These numbers compare to averages for all other parts of the store of 52% of shoppers visiting.Check-outs are outThe closer they get to the end of their trip, the quicker their pace. In fact, in our inaugural report, we found that the time required to make a purchase at the beginning of a trip was three times longer than at the end of the trip. Case in point: a shopper spends 28.2 seconds deciding to buy salad dressing at the beginning of the trip compared to only 8.3 seconds at the end. So don't put the display near the end of the trip. For the most part, you have lost the shopper to their sole focus on getting out of the store. Their mind is no longer on shopping.One Very Effective P-O-P DisplayBy placing a P-O-P display near the store's Sweet Spot, where traffic is high and conversion rates are good, shopping can be supercharged. Here is what happened with one particular display: Conversion POP display 8% Nearby area 6% Store Average 0% These are changes in the rate of converting visitors to shoppers. Although on a store-wide basis there was no change in shopping rate, there was a remarkable 8% increase right where the P-O-P display was placed, and a 6% increase in the immediately surrounding area! Sales of items from the display more than doubled during the test period, with two-thirds of those sales actually coming from the regular in-line aisle placement, rather than the P-O-P display.The location of the display near the store's Sweet Spot -- in this case the back aisle with advantageous passageway to the checkout -- may have been more important for the success of the promotion than the particular items being promoted. Just as in real estate, they to displays may very well be location, location, location.The information provided here is based on the best research to date. Our subsequent audits and research are continually verifying what we are finding in the Portland test store. Manufacturers and retailers that want the most accurate picture of how to maximize the real estate in specific store formats are increasingly using tracking technology like PathTracker. Merchandisers who study the shopping hot spots either through a tracking system and/or by observation can greatly increase their P-O-P effectiveness.About Sorensen AssociatesSorensen Associates is an in-store, context-based market research company based in Portland, Oregon.

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