Retailers should be pressing their suppliers to help them deliver a better in-store experience for their customers, claimed WPP The Store chief executive David Roth at the World Retail Congress.

Roth contended that with consumer behaviour becoming increasingly difficult to assess, brands could enhance their product appeal by improving their customer communications, from advertising right through to store delivery.

“To attract more consumers brands need to look not at how they can cut prices but at how they can add value to the purchase, such as more informative and effective fixturing,” he said. “The brands already have budgets committed to this area as well and it can really help boost sales.”

Roth also said that he believes consumers will turn their backs on discount retailers once the recession begins to ease, because the value operators have failed to provide any consumer engagement beyond low prices.

“From our research, it’s a kind of a win and a lose, because they are getting the customers now but they are not satisfying them beyond the low prices. In my view they need to be looking now – while they have captured the customers – at what they can do to improve the customer experience and to get shoppers to come back once they are feeling more affluent,” he said. “I don’t think they will get them to come back to buy everything but they may be able to retain them in some categories.”