The rules of grocery retailing are changing. Price promises are universal and no longer set the majority of grocers apart, while most of the big brands are generally available in stores all of the time.

The rules of grocery retailing are changing. Price promises are universal and no longer set the majority of grocers apart, while most of the big brands are generally available in stores all of the time.

Once you take a price promise and brand availability out of the equation, what are you left with to define your offer?

It sounds like a truism but retailers really need to better understand their customers and what drives their purchasing decisions.

Generally speaking, people enter a store with two mindsets – either looking for staples such as eggs or bread, or for ‘solutions’ to their food problems. It is in this second mindset where the opportunities lie.

Grocery shopping is a big and unavoidable part of our everyday lives so providing solutions, addressing a desire for healthy food or for something quick and easy for example, can make the difference and keep the shopper coming back and spending more.

Healthy products are growing faster than normal foods and are now worth £12bn. Added to this, three quarters of us say we have general concerns about our health. So the market is certainly there.

At present in the UK, 63% of us say we try to achieve our five a day with a third of us believing we manage it. However, in reality, only a pitiful 13% of us actually do. There is certainly a clear consumer desire to be healthy but the current economic climate can make it difficult. This is where retailers can help – for example, by making five a day more accessible to all. It’s about helping customers shop smartly, easily and enjoyably.

Knowing how customers use the products they buy is also crucial if retailers want to increase loyalty.

From a consumption perspective, store layouts typically run counter to how shoppers actually eat. When we decide what we want for our evening meal (the most valuable meal of the day and worth £21bn), most of us think of the proteins first and then choose our vegetables to complement – peas with fish or root vegetables with beef. Yet when we go round a typical store planning our meals for the week, the shopfloor conflicts with this mental process. This generally results in predictable choices and much lower sales volumes.

Retailers need to present an image of a complete meal: mustard typically goes with beef and apple sauce with pork – so place these items together or clearly signpost them and remind us of our favourite meal combinations.

We’re unlikely to forget to buy protein, but we may need a nudge to buy items such as sauces. Think about the whole meal value. And remember that the beef category is not worth £1.8bn, it’s closer to £3.7bn when you add in everything else on the plate such as horseradish, red wine, flour or eggs.

By making small changes to stores that reflect the psychology of the consumer and by ensuring messages are relevant and targeted, retailers can show customers how they are different when everyone else is the same.

  • Jonathan Firth, business unit director, Kantar Worldpanel Usage