Supermarket Perimeter - January 2021 - 13

I

n the 80s and 90s, grocery stores added
pharmacies as a strategy to drive foot traffic.
Soon, grocery drugstores proliferated, accounting
for roughly 14% of retail pharmacy prescriptions while
bringing a whole new connection point for retailers to
think about and talk to their customers.
It felt as if this could be a match made in heaven.
Grocery could really begin to bridge the gap between
health and wellness.
Health and wellness remain a major trend today,
propelled further into the spotlight by the coronavirus.
Supermarkets have an opportunity to expand their
inﬂuence in the perimeter as preventative health grows
as a shopper focus. Before vitamins, supplements and
prescriptions, whole foods are natural medicine.
Grocery stores have an important role to play. And
an opportunity to educate customers and capitalize
on wellness trends. Their perimeters, full of fresh and
nutrition packed foods, have the potential to be our
pharmacies of the future. How stores choose to evolve
and make healthy shopping exciting will dictate how
they succeed in coming years.

Lasting changes from 2020
COVID-19 has brought to life the importance for all of
us of being healthier. Long avoided issues of obesity
are now front and center as those with pre-existing
conditions are facing the brunt of this new virus.
Grocery has experienced major shifts with the
pandemic. On one hand, sales increased as more people
cooked at home - 54% of shoppers adopted new home
cooking habits during this time, according to HUNTER
research. But lower foot traffic, tighter budgets, and
more online shopping meant fewer impulse purchases.
With up to 20% of the average household grocery bill
accounting for impulse buys, grocers felt the pinch.
Shoppers also engaged with new services like Buy
Online, Pick Up in/at Store (BOPIS and BOPAS). Services
like Shipt and Instacart were now available to safely do
the shopping for consumers. Services ﬂourished, with
8% of all consumer goods sold online purchased through
Instacart. In the early months of COVID they saw app
downloads and usage go up 200%.
The challenge is that the shopper was taken off the
ﬂoor and put onto a screen. Great if you know exactly
what you want, but those impulsive purchases that grow
the basket became more challenging.
What is a grocery retailer to do in this new world? Can
it help as shoppers try to make small to large meaningful
changes in their lifestyles and embrace wellness? Where
can they engage as shoppers look to avoid going to
the store or have embraced new services like BOPIS,
avoiding the perimeter of the store altogether? What can
the retailer do if the shopper isn't even in their location?
supermarketperimeter.com

A suggestive perimeter
Even though there has been an explosion of various
services that remove or redirect your shopper, that
doesn't mean you should give up on providing them
solutions when they are in your store. A recent study
from The Manifest shows that 62% of shoppers are still
shopping in stores regularly.
Consumer focus on health, wellness and safety is
more important than ever, so any opportunities to
merchandise for those needs will be welcomed.
Shoppers are often making meal decisions while in
the store. This makes visual cues essential for capturing
limited, and stressed, attention spans.
Over the past two decades shoppers that have tried
to eat healthier have lived by one creed, " shop the
perimeter. " But with so many new health-conscious
consumers, grocers have the opportunity to guide and
facilitate more perimeter shopping and to grow shopper
baskets.
Visual cues through key product placements and
signage can elevate perceptions of commitment to
wellness. Signage can move beyond price and include
relevant nutritional information and even the beneﬁts
of particular foods. Shoppers are not just looking for
calories, fat and sugar, but functional beneﬁts and
medicinal qualities provided.
More and more shoppers are seeing " food as
medicine'' as they look to improve their lifestyles. But
don't assume shoppers will know or remember the
functional beneﬁts of foods. Help
them understand through
effective signage and display.
The
pandemic has
made optimizing
digital more
important than
ever.

JANUARY 2021 - 13
http://www.supermarketperimeter.com
Supermarket Perimeter - January 2021

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