MAXIMISING IMPULSE IN OFF-PREMISE

NORRELLE GOLDRING OFFERS UP SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO ENCOURAGE MORE IMPULSE PURCHASING IN LIQUOR RETAIL.

National Liquor News Editor Deb Jackson mentioned to me the other day a statistic she’d recently heard at a conference, that ‘food impulse purchasing is as high as 45 per cent, but in liquor retail impulse purchasing is often as low as 10 per cent of total sales’. She wondered why, and what could be done about it. Some thoughts on this below.

HOW DOES FOOD SHOPPING DIFFER FROM LIQUOR SHOPPING?

To begin with, the shopping trip types are different in supermarkets versus in liquor stores, and this impacts both basket size and planning. In supermarkets the vast majority of trips are either ‘stock up’ or ‘top up’ trips (including ‘dinner tonight’), involving anywhere from six to 40 items and time spent in-store ranging from 10 minutes to an hour. Supermarket shopping is often regarded by as a chore and combined with the longer dwell times some shoppers consider it justified to reward themselves with a treat (or buying something to prevent the kids pestering them, if kids are on the shopping trip). When shoppers are on stock up and top up trips they are exposed to multiple aisles and areas of the store and thus when traversing aisles they pass categories, products, and gondola end displays where they may be ‘reminded’ to buy an item that wasn’t on their (written or mental) shopping list, but may be a product they don’t want to run out of or of which their home stocks are running low.

Compare this to liquor where, unless they are hosting an event requiring a stock up across multiple categories, or they are buying wine by the mixed case, typically shoppers are on ‘destination’ shopping trips for something specific. They typically buy one to two items, seeing only the parts of the store on the way to and from their chosen category and the checkout, and they are in the store for less than

five minutes (depending on the queue at the checkout). Shopper studies I’ve done in the past indicate that not only are liquor stores thought of as the adult equivalent of ‘lolly shops’, meaning they are not thought of as a chore and the products in them are considered as treats, shoppers aren’t in the store long enough to feel like they are justified in further rewarding themselves. So this means a ‘treat’ occasion is unlikely as an impulse purchase.

In addition, there’s a rough equation shoppers do between the value of the impulse item and their total spend. So a $1.60 chocolate bar as a treat on a $90 supermarket shopping basket isn’t much, but a $5 item on a single item on top of a $20 purchase in a bottle shop may be… particularly if it involves spending over a particular currency denomination. (Although mitigated somewhat by tap and go, shoppers are inclined to think in price breaks based on the currency notes: $5, $10, $20, $50).

WHAT ACTUALLY IS IMPULSE?

True impulse is when a shopper had not planned to buy the category (let alone a specific brand or product) before they entered the store. (Note that impulse is not the same as upselling or cross selling).

In supermarkets, studies I’ve done indicate that fewer than 10 per cent of the sales for many individual categories are true impulse. However, because supermarket shoppers are often buying a large number of items as discussed above, it’s likely that several in the basket will be impulse-based on the prompt/ remind dynamic mentioned earlier.

In liquor, because the majority of trips are destination, mission-based and therefore often ‘blinkered’, and shoppers are only exposed to a small portion of the store, the opportunities for impulse are fewer. But that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO INCREASE IMPULSE SALES?

So if it’s not treat or reward, what are the impulse opportunities? Base it around the trip type and occasion. Examples include:

• Complementary category displays and POS materials, for example shelf wobblers and fins, and ambient product displays, of mixers next to the spirits shelves.

• Occasion-based displays, for example ‘party zones’ and bundles including beer, wine, snacks. Other occasion-based displays such as ‘dinner out’, ‘date night’ etc in the major pathways between the door, the fridges/ cool room and the checkout. Season-based displays such as ‘winter warmers’.

• His and hers displays, for example ‘something for him’ (craft beer six-pack) ranged next to the sparkling wine. ‘Something for her’ wine single serves ranged next to major beer brands and at the checkout.

• Displays at the checkout are a given… snacks, mixers, confectionery, nuts. If you have the space a small fridge with cheese and smallgoods, merchandised with crackers.

ABOUT NORRELLE GOLDRING

Norrelle has 20 years’ experience in retail, category, channel and customer strategy, marketing and research, working in and with global retailers, manufacturers and research houses. She’s been involved in the liquor industry for nearly 25 years, including roles at Diageo and Coca-Cola. Contact Norrelle on 0411735190 or email norrellegoldring@hotmail.com