Increase In-line Vision
Our core objective was to increase ‘In-line vision’ to the category in meters and seconds. Getting the products in line of vision is alpha and omega if you want to succeed with an impulse categories.
Before situation:
A: The permanent beverage section (shelf) was not in-line with shopper traffic in Q3. Shoppers had to turn their heads to see the category, or ‘browse’ the aisles up and down to interact with it. Case is that only 18% of the shoppers saw the shelves, and if they saw it, they only had one meter interaction.
B: The juice rack was placed in the worst corner of the store, with no intention what so ever to sell. It was placed alongside detergents, which is a hard combination to understand. Only 20% of shoppers passed this rack.
C: The placement of the cooler was not too bad, and 50% of the shoppers did see / interact with it. It was however partly hidden behind the gondolas. The eye-ball contact was (gross) 2 meters.
The weighted / net interaction effect was 1.4 meters and less than 2 seconds. About 35% of all shoppers did interact with the category, which is far too little for an impulse category.
After situation (What we did):
A: Moved the permanent beverage section (shelf) to be in-line with the core shopper traffic (Swapped with a basic product category)
B: Moved the Juice Rack to the fresh section (fruits and vegetables) to create “Fresh to Drink”
C: Moved the cooler one meter to the right to improve shopper visibility (Swapped space with a basic product rack)
Results:
The beverage category grew 115%. It sure brings life to the saying: “How can it ever sell, if it can’t be seen’. We just made sure that products were visible and in-line with how shoppers walk. Simple thinking, but yet so effective.
With the rather small changes, the shopper interaction increased to 21 meters and 30 seconds for 100% of the shoppers. The sales of the basic products that got a less ideal placement, did not drop sales.
Two key takeaways:
1. Impulse categories need to be seen
2. The longer the interaction in terms of visibility – the higher the sales.
End note
From hundred of various projects across the globe, we have seen that for every second we grow the in-line vision of a category, we are able to grow the overall category with 3.7%. If we convert a POI to a POE, the effect is even higher. Remember that the more you make the product ‘relevant’ at point of purchase, the higher the growth.
The 3.7% is just based on transactional selling points and visibility of the category leader.
A good tip to increase the in-line vision, is to see the store through the eyes of a shopper. It is not more complex than that, but it requires that we get out of the meeting rooms and into the stores. Normally it takes about 30 minutes to 2 hours to estimate the growth potential in any store around the world. It does not matter that much if you are in a high per cap market or in a low per cap market, as the same rules applies in most cases. It is just about modularizing the store and the knowledge you have at hand.
Amazing things happen every second
For every one additional second in-line visibility of the category, it will grow 3.7%.
The most important element is to have focus on the number one brand in the category. This should ideally be the number one ‘top of mind’ brand in the category.