Supermarket Shopping: It’s All About the Right Place, Right Time, Right Channel

People continue to shop in physical stores and Mintel predicts that online grocery shopping will only make up 10% of total sales come 2022.

93% of UK households have internet access and 83% of people own a smartphone – yet online grocery retail makes up only 6.7% of total grocery sales. People continue to shop in physical stores and Mintel predicts that online grocery shopping will only make up 10% of total sales come 2022.

We asked why? With a nationally representative sample of 1000 shoppers we explored the reasons for continuing to visit large supermarkets in the age of convenience and the importance of our digital screens in those shopping trips.

Right place

Firstly let’s explore why people still visit large supermarkets. For 63% of shoppers the most important reasons for doing their shopping in a large supermarket was that they just can’t find all the items they need in a convenience store. We’re also a nation of deal-hunters; over 6 in 10 said they shop in large supermarkets due to the availability of better deals.

Why don’t they just order online? Well, the in-store experience is unbeatable – with 56% of people saying they prefer to browse/touch products before they purchase them and half simply preferring the in-store experience.

Right Time

Shoppers arrive at the store open and receptive to new information. A previous Clear Channel UK study on supermarkets showed that only 10% of food shoppers stick to their shopping lists. With our most recent study we explored this further, with 79% of participants saying that when they make shopping list they tend to write the type of product (e.g. butter, bread) rather than the brand.

Not only are people straying from the limitations of their shopping lists, but what they do have on there is not set in stone – people come to supermarkets with their brand choices potentially undecided and we play a key role in helping to make that final decision as they enter the supermarket.

Right Channel

So we know that supermarket shopping is here to stay, and that shopping decisions can be made in those crucial moments before people enter the store. During shopping trips consumers are faced with a multitude of media touchpoints. From in-store gondola ends to ATMs, trolley ads and of course digital screens outside supermarkets.

But in such a cluttered media environment, what makes our supermarket D6s the right channel?

Our research shows that people want to see special offers at the supermarket and 73% say they would like to see such advertising on our digital screens specifically. Digital screens outside supermarkets also provide a source of meal inspiration – surpassing trolley and ATM advertising as well as gondola end promotions for our participants in the research.

We can’t forget the technological capabilities our supermarket D6s hold; they capture attention with full motion capabilities, copy can be dynamic and contextually relevant – from live updates reacting to the weather to location specific ads.

Most importantly, they’re in the right place at the right time.