The phrase ‘retail is detail’ has always resonated with me.
When I was a budding national account manager in the UK grocery channel, it was a phrase my manager at the time liked to remind me of. That was 25 years ago, and it has stuck with me ever since.
Recent visits to airport stores prompted me to think what ‘retail is detail’ means in a Global Travel Retail (GTR) context – especially when it comes to spirits brands. There are many aspects that it could apply to, but it seems to me the most important is in-store execution and, in particular, merchandising.
A good starting point, in my view, when thinking about merchandising is to put yourself in the shoes of the shopper. They need to be able to find what they’re looking for quickly, the offer needs to be easy to understand and the experience enjoyable and smooth.
We’re all shoppers ourselves and we know we get easily confused and disinterested when confronted by overcomplicated messages, offers and products that aren’t relevant to us. Suppliers and retailers, therefore, should think about ‘detail’ in terms of how to keep things simple.
Ensuring spirits categories are well signposted so shoppers can easily find them sounds obvious, but I’ve often struggled to find what I am looking for. Recently, I had two very different experiences: in one airport store, there was clear signage on gondola displays indicating categories and it was easy to find what I was looking for; in another, there was no category signage and categories were in multiple places.
I left without making a purchase.
As well as signposting traditional spirits categories, it’s important to also signpost speciality categories clearly, for example, locally-made spirits or wines.
Brand personalisation plays an important role in merchandising in GTR. A personalised wall bay or gondola display for a brand can act as a magnet for shoppers, drawing them to a particular area or brand.
If possible, the personalised wall bay for a vodka brand, for example, should be close to where the other vodkas are located. In this way, the personalised wall bay can also act as a signpost to the category.
From a merchandising point of view, personalised displays should take the shopper experience up a notch and provide the opportunity to experience and learn about the brand through all their senses. Spirits brand owners need to deploy their own merchandising standards to their personalised displays to ensure their brand families are presented in the best ways.
This involves a great amount of attention to detail in ensuring consistent execution.
Detail also comes in ensuring merchandising principles and guidelines are in place and being followed. Spirits brand owners should play a part in advising and helping retailers with this, ideally at a category – rather than just at a brand – level. Data should be used to make category management decisions and inform retailers on their product assortment and the best place to merchandise brands.
However, there are some well-known, fundamental merchandising principles that should also be followed. First of all, remember ‘eye level is buy level’; it’s important to put premium-priced, best-selling brands that you want shoppers to buy at eye level.
Secondly, super-premium-priced spirits should be on the top shelf and lower-value spirits on the bottom shelf.
Thirdly, members of a brand family should all be in the same place. Research has shown that shoppers shop in the same way they read – for the majority of people, this means horizontally, from left to right.
Therefore, more premium products should be merchandised to the right since this is the last place a shopper’s eyes will come to.
Fourthly, RTDs, premix cocktails and smaller bottle sizes should not necessarily be merchandised on the same shelving as full-sized bottles. Till-point displays or separate display areas may well be more effective in encouraging purchases for these products.
Shelf talkers or other forms of on-shelf signage play an important role in helping shoppers make purchase decisions. It sounds obvious, but there should always be a price for a product clearly displayed and visible to shoppers. There have been many times when I haven’t purchased a product because I haven’t been able to find its price!
It’s important not to overcrowd the shelves with shelf talkers and only use them to advertise special messages, for example, a price offer or gift-with-purchase item. They draw a shopper’s eye to a brand or offer and therefore should form part of the merchandising toolkit.
I would also encourage spirits brand owners and retailers to think about shoppers’ buying needs and communicate these at the point-of-sale. GTR-exclusive products should be highlighted.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a single common ‘language’ that brands and retailers use to communicate GTR exclusivity. Maybe this is something for the industry to collectively work on?
Merchandising guidelines should also include the best way to communicate how products satisfy other buying needs, for example, gifting, convenience and value for money. Merchandising should be a topic on the agenda at all spirits brand owner and retailer meetings. This will help in making the shopping experience easier, more enjoyable and profitable for everyone.
When it comes to GTR merchandising my manager was right – retail certainly is detail.
This article was originally published in June’s issue of Global Drinks Intel magazine. For more details, including how to subscribe, click here.
