Leveraging Behavior Data to Reach Mission-Oriented Shoppers

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Displaying relevant products along the appropriate parts of customers' in-store journey is one way to generate incremental sales from shoppers on specific trip missions.

However, to unlock impulse opportunities requires an understanding of shoppers' behaviors on specific trip missions, according to new case studies from VideoMining.

"The mission-oriented shoppers are motivated to find and grab the set of products that meet their specific trip mission. However, they are also open to considering other products that they deem 'relevant,' especially on quick trips which is becoming more prevalent in almost all retail formats," said Rajeev Sharma, founder and CEO of VideoMining.

In a series of case study summaries, VideoMining illustrates how behavioral data helped developed targeted strategies for reaching shopping on specific trip missions in three different retail channels, including convenience stores, grocery stores and drug stores.

Convenience Stores — Beverage Trips

A consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturer sought to optimize a secondary display playbook for salty snacks in the c-store channel. The goal was to develop a priority rank order of ideal locations for displays with supporting fact-based insights to sell in the display concepts to retailers.

VideoMining conducted a Display Deep Dive to characterize the parameters that optimize the performance of salty snacks displays, utilizing behavioral data from a sample of more than 10,000 past displays from the firm's C-store Shopper Insights Tracker program.

One specific goal of the study was to analyze at the behavioral patterns of key c-store trip missions to fine-tune the salty snacks display strategy. This included beverage or refreshment trips because they are the leading trip drivers for the channel, comprising about 40 percent of all convenience trips.

VideoMining's behavior research found:

• Shoppers "beeline" to the beverage coolers to satisfy their primary trip mission. Any display on their path to the cooler does not do well.
• Once the shopper grabs the cold beverage, turning away from the cooler, they are a lot more open to considering other products.
• With salty snacks having high affinity with cold beverages, VideoMining identified the right locations on the "return" path and quantified their value compared to all secondary display locations around the store.

Grocery Stores — Grilling Trips

A CPG manufacturer aimed to increase the share of canned beans bought in grocery stores for grilling occasions. Although grilling trips make up only 2.4 percent of total grocery store trips, they create a potentially attractive opportunity for expanding the usage of canned beans through effective promotions, according to VideoMining.

The market research firm analyzed the full-store paths of shoppers on grilling trips from a nationwide sample of 1.2 billion grocery store trips from its Grocery Shopper Insights Tracker program. Grilling trips were identified as ones containing primary grilling categories like hamburgers, hot dogs, buns, condiments or charcoal.

Utilizing sequence analysis of the subset of shoppers who bought canned beans in their grilling trips along with in-store patterns of all shoppers on grilling trips, VideoMining identified the best locations for secondary displays, and evolving the right messaging to engage shoppers on grilling trips. The overall impact was a successful promotional campaign that increased the usage of canned beans for the grilling occasion.

Drug Stores — Pharmacy Trips

A large drug store chain wanted to understand the behaviors of shoppers on pharmacy trips in comparison with nonpharmacy trips to help develop merchandising strategies for maximizing impulse purchases.

To meet the retailer's need, VideoMining implemented its full-store behavior analytics platform in a selected set of stores with representative store layouts. One of the key goals of the study was to develop an understanding of the behaviors of pharmacy customers before and after their pharmacy visit.

A key finding was that a majority of the pharmacy customers shop other categories only after their pharmacy visit. This was in line with other findings about behaviors of shoppers on specialized trips. Ultimately, a detailed analysis of behaviors pharmacy customers helped in evaluating their affinity to specific categories, interaction with secondary displays and waiting patterns. Some of these foundational learnings were incorporated in a new store design concept.

"Segmenting and targeting very specialized trip missions can be a very effective strategy for a brand or category. When combined into an ongoing practice by a retailer, it creates a destination that caters to shopper needs and occasions, beyond the obvious promotions that everyone does. It helps retailers differentiate their stores from competitors, enhances the in-store experience and shopper loyalty — something that is even more valuable than the incremental sales," said Sharma.

"However, with shifting consumer preferences and rapidly evolving store formats, it is more important than ever to incorporate behavioral insights to unlock the true potential of such targeted strategies. With total store traffics declining, insights-driven targeted promotions provide an attractive competitive advantage. Understanding storewide behaviors of the shopper trip segments help in a range of efforts to adapt to the changing shopper/retail landscape,"  he concluded.

State College-based VideoMining helps retailers and consumer packaged goods companies optimize retail performance and experience by decoding in-store behavior.