Minerva Insights & Solutions released its first US shopper report, A Matter of Choice, What Drives Grocery Store Visits, proving that the battle over shoppers’ wallets remains in-store – and price, fresh perishables and product availability are the top three keys to survival.
The results from Minerva highlight critical drivers to store choice, how retailers are performing against these and what retailers and manufacturers can do to gain an increased share of shoppers’ time, loyalty and spend.
“Shoppers have more choices when it comes to grocery shopping and more drivers are competing for their attention than ever before,” said Philip Cop Owner of Minerva Insights & Solutions. “If retailers and manufacturers don’t work together to differentiate themselves, they’ll be even further behind and miss out on an opportunity to solve shoppers’ greatest needs.”
Key insights about the future of store choice
- Store formats such as Aldi, Trader Joe’s and Costco address key US grocery shopper needs the best and will undoubtedly continue to go from strength to strength.
- While there are several other elements impacting store choice and loyalty like fresh perishables and organic options there is no question that Everyday Low Prices model is still the most important factor impacting US shopper store choice decisions.
- While another battle looms to gain online grocery shoppers, this survey indicates it is not as much in play – just yet.
According to the study, shoppers rated their five most important factors in shopping as Fresh Perishables, Everyday Low Prices, Convenient Location, In-Stock Products and Wide Assortment. When analyzing impact on overall store satisfaction, other factors came up such as Quick Check-Out, Staff Friendliness & Service, Right Company Values, Store Brands, Promotions, Healthy/Organic Options and High Quality & Gourmet Foods.
The report also looks at specific retailers, satisfaction levels and what is driving shoppers to those locations every week. In the last 30 days, 50 percent of US shoppers have visited Walmart, however the retailer fails to make it on the top ten list when it comes to overall satisfaction. Another notable absentee in the top ten list was Whole Foods with non-competitive prices the clear culprit. Trader Joe’s comes in as the retailer shoppers find most satisfying with a 93 percent rating.
How to win customer loyalty and how to lose it
Across all retailers, shoppers say the biggest areas of improvement include price (20 percent), product selection (16 percent), check-outs (7 percent) and product availability (7 percent).
Top-ranked retailers were also recognized as the best for one or more specific store drivers: Trader Joe’s (Company values, Staff, Check-outs, Store Brands and Novelty Products), Costco (Product Tastings & In store events), Aldi (Price), Publix (In-Stock and Location) and Wegmans (Fresh Perishables and Wide Assortment).
Minerva conducted the study with more than 1000 primary decision makers for grocery shopping in a US nationwide, census-matched online survey at the end of May 2018. To read the entire report, visit https://www.isminerva.com/feed/us-grocery-store-choice-drivers.
Source: Minerva Insights & Solutions
