nickshanagher

If you set up the promotion, shoppers will buy it. Andy Singh invited me to visit his family shop in Sunnyside, near Gateshead, and I spent an enjoyable hour with him talking about business yesterday. We were consistently interupted by shoppers popping in to top-up, which was great! When I arrived, Andy pointed me to the space in front of his till where he had put pancake mix, honey, Nutella, and golden syrup. Pancake day, he said. I was surprised but within minutes the first shopper arrives in store asking if he has pancake mix. Just here, he said. Great said the shopper, adding a tin of golden syrup and buying a big bar of chocolate on promotion as Andy had run out of chocolate sauce. Remarkably, more shoppers came in to buy materials to make pancakes and Andy was able to send them all home happy. Andy, with his dad, runs a great shop. He is on first name terms with most of the shoppers. Everything is well merchandised and clearly priced. By having a strong and trusted relat...

Standing in a bric-a-brac shop yesterday, talking to the owner, my eye caught sight of an old Coca-Cola sign with a £48 price tag. His shop is filled to the brim and beyond with stuff. People drop in off the street to browse. Sometimes they buy something. Mostly they leave without buying. It is the opposite of the modern convenience store. What are shoppers looking for? Something valuable that my friend has not noticed? Something to complete their mantlepieces? Props for stage set? A gift for someone who has too much new stuff? He knows his proposition. He buys stuff that looks like someone might value it and then hides it away on shelves filled with often unrelated stuff. Shoppers with time to kill are happy to hunt it out. What do you have in a convenience store that provides the same joy to your shoppers? Perhaps nothing. Perhaps your magazine range? Perhaps you greetings cards?

A US food researcher wrote recently that when it comes to snacks like crisps people are looking for the product to taste great and when they see that the product has a "better-for-you" positioning, they make the assumption that the taste will have been compromised. Good taste is mostly going to have priority over better-for-you when it comes to impulse purchases. However, this will not stop manufacturers from constantly trying to produce the better-for-you product that tastes great! If taste makes the shoppers happy, then you need to focus your efforts on providing the right products. This does not mean that you ignore the shopper looking for a better-for-you treat but it does mean that in providing for them you must not forget that the essential purpose of a snack is pleasure.