
Christmas and Q4 is key for many categories but smart planning activity is vital for driving successful activities and high ROI. We see on average a 28% increase in return from Christmas activities when driven by data led planning. But what happens if you don’t have data and how can you get it?
Challenges for Grocery strategy without data
Misaligned timing, exhausted budgets and stock issues:
Firstly, understanding the right time for activity in store is key. Consumer buying behaviour often follows predictable patterns leading up to Christmas. But it changes. Without data, you might not know when consumers typically begin their shopping or when the demand for your specific products peaks. Starting too early might exhaust the budget and customer interest. Starting too late might miss the peak buying period, reducing the effectiveness of the campaign and cause stock issues.
Our data shows Christmas continues to get later as more shoppers leave all their shopping to December. In Grocery we have seen sales increase by +8.3% in December across key Christmas categories last year versus 5 years ago. Similarly, October has declined by -6.4% in the last 5 years, therefore much activity in October and November can struggle to drive the right ROI versus a few years ago.
Being in the wrong place at the wrong time:
Identifying stores with the largest and least potential for sales growth is vital. In most categories 80% of all sales come from just 30% of stores. So you need to know exactly where your opportunity lies, and when and how your consumers behave in and around these circa 1880 stores.
We have a vast experience and huge amounts of data in our data warehouse over many years, updated daily. So even if you don’t have additional data to know where you should be, we likely do. This allows us to plan effective resource and deployment in the right place at the right time for you. It’s not too late for this year.
Sub-optimal Displays and Merchandising:
Displays are key at Christmas. It’s not just having them – it's what type and where you place them. We know from our intervention return tracking that some types of display deliver over 400% more sales than others. From our data we can guide our field teams to the right stores to gain these displays to maximise sales.
Focusing on the wrong action:
Knowing the right interventions to focus the team on is just as important. Some availability fixes drive 44% more sales than standard merchandising. Guiding the team to these opportunities in visit helps maximise every minute in store.
Competitor Activities:
Understanding when competitors are likely to ramp up their activities or what promotions they are doing, is crucial for one’s own campaigns. Without data there is a risk of launching campaigns at the same time, offering inferior promotions, or doing it when competitors have already captured most of the consumer attention.
Our field-staff gather vital intel and data every day across on what’s happening on the shop-floor across thousands of stores. In December last year we averaged 3000 hours a week in the top 4 grocers. Everything to keep you informed of what is going on to ensure you can be adaptive and competitive.
Data planning to optimise your activity and surpass your objectives
For one of our clients, we have run successful data led Christmas activity for the last 8 years. We have improved their ROI by on average +16% each year of the activity through constantly refining and evolving our plans. That’s a +128% increase in ROI 2023 vs 2016, moving from 9.4 to 1 to 21 to 1. This shows the power of data led planning and constant evolution.
The good news is that even as we get closer to the golden quarter, our insight and Flex teams can do much to maximise your sales and make sure your precious time and resources are used efficiently.
Let us help you optimise your activity and make it a brilliant festive season for you. Contact us.