As more cities are facing lockdown, nonessential businesses are being ordered to close and customers are generally avoiding public places. Limiting shopping for all but necessary essentials is becoming a new normal. Brands are finding the need to adapt and be flexible to meet changing needs.
With the increasing restrictions, consumers also continue to stock up on essentials; thus making grocers, delivery services, and e-commerce companies adapt at a rapid pace to meet consumer demand and deal with the unchartered territory of how to keep employees and shoppers safe from the virus while doing so.
According to a Snapcart survey on Covid-19’s impact on shopper behavior, 66% of Indonesian shoppers go to stores LESS often now as an effect of the Covid-19 situation and the resulting social distancing protocols implemented by the government.
Going to stores less often means buying more per visit to sustain grocery needs. In order to limit the need to get out more, shoppers tend to maximize their visits by buying more groceries. Now, people prefer shopping online rather than going to the store because it is safer and much more practical. Especially, in the midst of this Covid-19 outbreak that makes many people reduce activities outside the home. Therefore are taking online business opportunities in the midst of this outbreak. According to the same Snapcart survey, 57% of Indonesian shoppers claim to spend more per visit as an effect of the Covid-19 event.
This trend of ”less store visits but higher spend” has made shoppers more vigilant on their shopping. Shoppers now have to make sure they get everything that they need for every visit. In fact, from a Snapcart survey, the largest portion of users say the most prevailing mood or feeling that they have is “Alert” every time they visit a grocery store.
Not only do shoppers post high levels of alertness in the past week (April 12 – 18, 2020), the majority of shoppers also claim that they are using ‘shopping lists’ to guide their shopping. This posts a trend of higher vigilance and preparedness among Indonesian shoppers in the past week.
The Power of Promotions
Promotions are powerful both in the online and offline world. Value-based promotion aims not just to persuade purchase from price-value-oriented consumers but also to lessen perceived risk from consumers who have not yet tried a product or service.
According to a Snapcart survey, 74% of shoppers’ main attribute when purchasing during the COVID-19 crisis, is if the product is linked with Promotions. It beats Quality, Trust, Novelty, and Premiumness on consumers’ top considerations being second only to Affordability. And we know positioning a brand towards Affordability gives the brand a very limited direction which is to beat other brands in a race to the bottom. Meanwhile, all brands with different positioning can use promotions to grow.
Now findings we have about Covid-19’s impact on in-store shopping habits and the power of promotion, how do we use promotions to navigate through Covid-19’s impact on shopper habits inside the store for grocery shopping?
To give a clearer, more vivid answer, let us imagine this scenario:
A shopper leaves her house and goes to the supermarket to stock up on essential goods for her family. Because of the COVID-19 outbreak scare, she wants to get out of the store as soon as possible. She brings out her shopping list, hurries to the shelves she needs to be, and puts the items she wanted into her shopping cart. As she was hurrying, she passed by and didn’t notice your promoted products which could have been a good deal for her. This leaves both you and her a lost opportunity because you failed to get her attention on your place on the shelves.
Let’s rewind everything and go back to the night before. She was on her smartphone browsing and scrolling. This time, we get her attention by showing her a promo of your brand. She thinks it’s a good deal so by the time she writes her shopping list, your product was included, she leaves her house, goes to the supermarket and leaves with a bag carrying your product among other things she bought.
It’s a much better story, isn’t it?
A brand can do the solution in the scenario above by using digital ads or by using their own CRM platforms.
If you would like to reach active shoppers with active digital activities, you may use our platform in Snapcart called PASS. With sparse traffic in stores, Brands cut down their in-store spends and diverted to trade marketing to drive custom engagement. PASS is an ideal platform to get awareness from consumers, as well as influence people to purchase by giving promotions. This is more impactful now that people engage more with digital/ online platforms and give less attention to in store promotion and direct selling. Also as most people tend to stock up on daily product, it can be the right time to grab the high number of sales.
Right now, with digital attention at an all-time high, coupled with the power of promotions, it appears that the best way to go is to use both opportunities in the digital space getting more crowded and using promotions in there to stand out.
To summarize our findings above, we see that Indonesian shoppers are…
References:
https://thriveglobal.com/stories/the-power-of-promotional-products-what-consumers-say/
