July / AuGusT 2012
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Trolleys
02/08/2012
09:57
Page 26
ESM | Trolleys
YOU’RE OFF YOUR TROLLEY! One area of under-appreciated supermarket evolution is that of the trolley or basket. ESM looks at the modern approach to retail’s basic premise of customers’ carriage of food. one are the days of the standardsized trolley trundling up and down the aisles, now there are lightweight, medium and smallsized trolley variations. Baskets can come with wheels, and marketing opportunities exist on the frames or base of either carrying device. The core requirement of every Supermarket is the supermarket trolley and supermarket basket. Considering the sheer amount of use either a trolley or basket endures during an average day in a supermarket, it is understandable for retailers to focus on this area for potential savings, and indeed profitability. The basic ethos behind basket management revolves around a few simple things. Size, ease of use, and storage space. If they are too small, people will buy less, if they are too big, people will refrain from using them. If they are difficult to navigate around your store then obviously customers will not enjoy their experience, and if they
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take up excessive amounts of space either inside or outside your store, then that adds costs onto your already limited expense budget. Since the explosion of discount retailers throughout Europe, only accelerated by the Eurozone recession pushing more and more customers towards the cheaper stores, a trolley-basket hybrid has become the ideal shopping accessory. No longer a carryaround standard basket, aisles are now frequented by wheeled baskets, brightly coloured, and deep enough to satisfy a weekly or bi-weekly shop. The research and design behind these types of wheely-baskets is quite in-depth. “Huge trolleys can mean a lot of items that often turn to waste,” explains Laura Trnovcova of Bizzarri, makers of the Flexicart. “Any modern, intelligent and ‘politically correct’ shopping trip consists of getting to a shop more often for smaller spending and for fresher products. The hand basket gets heavy and uncomfortable
after a few minutes and the customers leave the store quicker. Therefore, the wheeled baskets appear most satisfying because of their capacity and comfort. A customer finds them directly inside the store similar to a hand basket (no need for coin) but keeps his hands free, as with a trolley. The comfortable aspect of shopping was one of the most important goals of Flexicart’s design. Perfect height, an integrated solid handle and three quality wheels are the key to its patented design.” There are obviously benefits for both parties when looking at trolleys and baskets. Sure, the correct size can emphasise more spending,while the correct colour can encourage more spending also. However there are also benefits for the customer. Many modern wheeled baskets do not see broken parts causing issues on the shop floor. The basic design of a handle, a plastic basket and a wheeled base is incredibly easy to manage and greatly reflects the modern shoppers motives of a lesser take home than
the shopper of perhaps six years ago. Clearly there are advancements taking hold in all areas of the store. And, given the ultimate usage rate of both trolleys and baskets, it is only natural that thoughts of how deep and how easy to manoeuvre these should be. The general presumption that smart-phone technology can only progress in one direction and will remove more and more customers from stores fails to take into account the here and now. Retailers are performing well in general, and the change of a weekly shop to a series of smaller visits essentially offers retailers more opportunities to entice customers to pay more. Given the planning process engaged by retailers to help maximise the return footfall of consumers, maximise the spend of consumers and therefore maximise the profits of the store, baskets are clearly a key part of this. In the current consumer climate, people no longer shop in bulk. In general, customers now visit a store multiple times a week for smaller outlays. Therefore, the large wire trolleys are becoming more redundant for the average shopper. “The advantage for the retailer is that even a ‘quick stop’ shopper, who comes to the store for just 2 or 3 products, will end up filling the basket,” explains Laura. The storage of these devices is obviously a concern to retailers. However, unlike standard, steel trolleys which weigh an awful lot and can take up considerable space, wheeled trolleys are often packed into a very small area as they can stack upwards, rather than outwards. “One factor is important to the retailer: increasing sales,” says Laura. “The dimension of
trolleys determine the amount of spending. Today’s shopper wants to feel more intelligent, quicker and comfortable. Flexicart’s concept, with its 64-litre capacity, is designed to reduce the storage space to a minimum. It is as large as smaller wired trolleys but as cheap as a plastic one, and easy to store in a small space.” However it is not just baskets which have adapted to the modern shopper. Trolleys, too, have changed in dimensions. Now available are a myriad of smaller trolleys, easier to navigate with which also satisfy the multi-trip shopper. Wheels have improved, design has improved and also, which is key to numerous smaller retail stores, storage capability has improved. Juan Diego Ribes of Polycart Export feels that baskets are not the way to go, as they can only offer a finite depth, far more shallow than a standard trolley. “From our point of view baskets with wheels are not a very good business, because even though they are popular and people take them instead of the trolleys because they are usually at handy places and there’s no need to use a coin, they are small, so when they get full the shopping ends, they are uncomfortable because you have to bend down for every item you buy, and they are not very hygienic, since they take all the dust from the floor with their wheels and they place that dust inside the next basket when nested.” Ribes acknowledges that the mindset of retailers has changed as trolleys and baskets have evolved into more than just sturdy item carriers. “The more manufacturers are introducing plastic trolleys with different designs, the more attention retailers are paying. Before plastic trolleys, buying a trolley for the store was more a matter of how strong the trolley was built, price and service. Now there are much more features to look after. With plastic trolleys they are starting to realize that considering the purchasing of trolleys is
not just a matter of the price they are buying the trolleys at, but also what is the overall cost of maintenance during their lifespan. The trolley at the supermarket is like the mouse of a computer. A computer may have a very powerful microprocessor and lots of memory, but if the mouse does not work well it's a mess to use it. The trolley is the interface of the customer with the store, their buying tool. If a trolley is comfortable and light the buyer will stay longer at the store and will end up buying more items. He will prefer to buy with a fancy looking trolley that is easy to maneouver and effortless to push than buying with the old style metal shopping trolley that tilts to the sides and is hard to drive, especially when full.” But additional developments don’t end just there. Almost nine years ago Tesco brought in special trolleys for their customers with a built in heart monitoring system. It showed a shopper’s heart rate through sensors on the bar used for pushing the trolley, and how many calories are being burned while they shop. The trolley, designed by German company Wanzl, even allowed shoppers to make their shopping workout harder by increasing the resistance on a large wheel between the two rear wheels on the trolley. Given the rise in the health conscious shopper, gimmicks like this are real eye-catchers and can attract in more customers and also satisfy and keep your current footfall. Of course there is one area which concerns retailers most of all – security. Again, trolley evolution has aided this area. Anything from a simple mechanical device which stops the use of the trolley wheels outside the supermarket’s perimeter to basic magnetic set ups which act the same way. Obviously this is an area of innovation and design, but given the potential earnings for a retailer, if done right, clearly this is a part of the retail business which should not be ignored.