Three retailers, three core categories, three major suppliers. RN’s Selling on Impulse project united all three back in April to discover how basic best practice advice can grow impulse sales in convenience stores. In each store, with each category, the suppliers Mars, GSK and PepsiCo analysed range and merchandising, creating and implementing new planograms and secondary sites. Three months later, RN analysed sales data from before and during the project and spoke to the three retailers to find out what the project achieved. Read on to meet our retailers and discover the results.
Patrick Patel
- Location: Crofton Park, South London
- Shop size: 3,000 sq ft, supermarket style
- Been in the business: 30 years
- Customers: “high-end” mums, families, office workers
Patrick Patel’s store started out as a newsagent and expanded into a convenience store. Two years ago, Patrick and his family joined Budgens and around 60% of its original customers were replaced by mums, families, “yuppies and high-end people”, as Patrick puts it. The store’s best sellers are alcohol, pop and fresh and chilled produce. It also sells organic and gluten-free products, and offers a number of free services to encourage footfall. Patrick got involved in the project because he admitted that having a supermarket format has meant “newsagent lines”, such as drinks and chocolates, have suffered from a lack of attention.
Before
Confectionery
- Confectionery displayed on 3 metre main layout mid-store, described by Patrick as “haphazard”.
- Kids’ products low on shelves.
- Block chocolates high on shelf.
Crisps & Snacks
- Crisps and snacks merchandised together in tight space mid-store.
- No planograms followed.
- Promotions such as Walkers’ two for £1 deal working effectively.
Soft Drinks
- Displayed on main fixture on aisle next to entrance.
- Wide range to incorporate main brands and niche to suit customer base.
- All products chilled, including larger packs.
Category Advice
Mars: Confectionery
- Rationalise range by 10%.
- Do a full relay, multifacing best sellers, grouping products by category and allocating space according to sales.
- Create a themed area with relevant point-of-sale material.
- Build display of the best selling bitesize confectionery lines near the beers, wines and spirits area.
PepsiCo: Crisps & Snacks
- Relay the fixture to focus on best sellers and optimise range.
- Place chiller baskets containing core products by sandwiches.
- Create a secondary display in the beers, wines and spirits section with a range of sharing bags.
- Maximise market-leading promotions such as Walkers Flavour Cup by using secondary sites and PoS material.
GSK: Soft Drinks
- Group like products together and implement a needstates flow to make it easy to find products.
- Smarten up vertical blocking.
- Reduce facings on slow selling lines.
- Give more facings to top selling products.
Results
Confectionery
- Increased volumes ordered from wholesalers.
- Customers often buying two bars of chocolate instead of one.
- Vastly improved layout with blocked categories naturally leading on to each other.
- 41% more bagged confectionery and 8% more countlines sold.
- 11% increase in units of confectionery sold.
Crisps & Snacks
- Sales of single bags up 50% in-store between May and July, compared to February to April, before the changes were made.
- Large increase in sharing bags sales – up 101% during the project – due to secondary site placement.
- 58% overall rise in crisps and snacks sales.
- High sales generated from secondary sites, such as baskets in chillers and placements near alcohol.
- Better understanding of different sales patterns on different days and the need to adapt displays accordingly.
Soft Drinks
- Drinks sales increased through better placement in the chiller, especially water and energy drinks.
- 17% growth versus the market.
- Improved shopping experience for customers due to clear blocking of products.
- Improved marketing of key brands and products, advertising store’s core range to customers.
Kay Patel
- Location: Stratford, east London
- Store size: 2,000 sq ft, large convenience
- Been in the business: 23 years
- Customers: students, Polish, pensioners and affluent young
Since Kay Patel took over his 2,000 sq ft store near Stratford town centre he has quadrupled it in size and added an off-licence, changing it from a newsagent to large convenience store. The store serves a lot of college students and there are many fast food shops and a university nearby. Around 10% of the store’s sales come from Polish people and pensioners and the number of young, affluent customers is growing. Beer and grocery are Kay’s best sellers in the evening and snacks and confectionery in the day.
Before
Confectionery
- Large volumes of bagged confectionery sold.
- Confectionery displayed on main fixture mid store, away from till.
- Display “messy”, according to Kay, and in need of re-planogramming.
Crisps & Snacks
- Stock bought from van supplies.
- Crisps and snacks displayed on fixture beneath large, wide counter.
- Promotions work well, but range contains too many flavours.
Soft Drinks
- Displayed on main fixture beyond counter, halfway down store.
- Display based on two planograms and advice from Bestway.
- Best sellers include energy drinks, with several new products in stock.
Category Advice
Mars: Confectionery
- Create a secondary display of best selling confectionery lines in an area immediately left of the tills.
- Merchandise an area near to beers, wines and spirits with best selling bitesized pouches.
- Create interest in-store with themed areas to tie in with seasonal and calendar events.
- Use planograms to ensure the correct confectionery products are in stock and in the correct places.
PepsiCo: Crisps & Snacks
- Relay the fixture to ease shopping, optimising range and focusing on best sellers.
- Place a slim stand by sandwiches containing Walkers standard bags to encourage link purchases and meal deals.
- Place clipstrips holding sharing bags by wines to cater for entertaining at home and to encourage link purchases.
- Introduce full range of Flavour Cup products with PoS to capitalise on consumer awareness around this campaign.
GSK: Soft Drinks
- Group like products together and give more facings to top selling products.
- Tighten up vertical blocking.
- Implement a needstates flow to make it easy to find products.
- Reduce facings on slow selling lines.
Results
Confectionery
- Permanent addition of a new confectionery display that encourages impulse sales.
- Customers buying more chocolate on impulse, including regulars who used to miss the main display.
- Increased sales of higher margin chocolate products.
- Average confectionery retail sales value up 12%
Crisps & Snacks
- Approximately £1,500 additional crisps and snacks sales in total during project period.
- Triple siting of limited edition Flavour Cup range produced strong sales, with frequent refills of baskets necessary.
- Permanent addition of a “take home” shelf linked to beer and soft drinks.
- Increased sales, linked purchases and awareness of snacks range by placing crisps by the chiller.
Soft Drinks
- Sales increase of 44% versus the market.
- Clearer display of products easing shopping for a very diverse customer base.
- Sales increases of up to 9.6% on products where facings were reduced.
- Strong performance from energy drinks in particular, after improved display.
Pratik Sampat
- Location: Penge, south-east London
- Store size: 1,000 sq ft, small impulse/convenience
- Been in business: 6 years
- Customers: mixture, mainly elderly
Pratik Sampat’s south London store is 100 years old. He has owned it for six years and, after taking a break, returned to run it a year and half ago. The store has had a refit and majors on cards and stationery, not least because the opening of a 99p Store nearby has had a serious effect on soft drinks and confectionery sales. Pratik believes in creating a point of difference rather than competing head on and has invested in a huge range of cards and gifts as well as offering passport photos and pricemarked products.
Before
Confectionery
- Confectionery displayed on main fixture, under till, midway down shop.
- All new lines stocked at launch, and customer requests used to increase range.
- Pratik is keen to increase sales and improve merchandising.
Soft Drinks
- Soft drinks displayed in open chiller by window at front of store.
- Best sellers include Coke and Diet Coke and bottled formats.
- Range recently reduced to cut number of products and focus on best sellers.
Crisps & Snacks
- Crisps and snacks displayed on one fixture to side of till.
- Stock received from direct-to-store vans.
- Range exclusively from Walkers, with access to point-of-sale material and merchandising advice.
Category Advice
Mars: Confectionery
- Introduce the right range of confectionery to the main confectionery fixture.
- Multiface the best sellers.
- Group products by category and allocate space according to sales.
- Increase gifting range of chocolate to tie into other gifting categories in the store.
GSK: Soft Drinks
- Group like products together and give more facings to top selling products.
- Tighten up vertical blocking.
- Implement a needstates flow to make it easy to find products.
- Reduce facings on slow selling lines.
PepsiCo: Crisps & Snacks
- Extend the range of standard crisp flavours to provide greater choice.
- Add a clipstrip of “better for you” ranges such as Walkers Baked, Sunbites and Lights to appeal to female customers.
- Add new flavours to create added interest among regular customers.
- Introduce Walkers’ two for 70p promotional packs.
Results
Confectionery
- 23% better performance than total market in one month after changes.
- Improved understanding of the need to keep to a core range and improve merchandising.
- Advice made section easier to run, including understanding what to stock and what to delist.
- Merchandising led to increased sales and visibility for several leading products.
Soft Drinks
- 15% growth above the market.
- Increased sales of more profitable formats, such as bottles, due to new merchandising.
- Adherence to a core range of well merchandised products that increased profitability and made section easier to run.
- Better understanding of which products to stock and those to delist.
Crisps & Snacks
- Demonstrated the importance of stocking secondary flavours to offer customers greater choice.
- Better understanding of effective category management.
- Encouraged analysis of sales records to identify a range and display tailored to specific customer base.
- Highlighted the importance of promotions and the need to use these further in future.
