ECOMMERCE INTELLIGENCE 2019
From Great Northern Instore, as first heard through the Retail Intel webinar series
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Insights and Insider Advice on In-store Marketing at Leading Retailers
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RETAILER PROFILE: AHOLD DELHAIZE
Provincialeweg 11 1506 MA Zaandam The Netherlands Phone: +31 88 659 9111 www.aholddelhaize.com
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Kroger is the leading supermarket operator in the U.S. and second only to Walmart as a grocery retailer, holding 10% of market share in 2016. Its vast supermarket portfolio encompasses nearly 2,800 supermarkets across 22 banners and multiple formats. The variety allows Kroger to cater to different customer segments across the country and it continues to experiment with new formats. After 13-years of consistent same-store sales growth, Kroger's streak ended in March 2017. In October 2017 the retailer rolled out Restock Kroger, a turnaround initiative focused on using technology to improve customer service, pricing and communication with customers while revamping its product assortment. Kroger sold its convenience store business to EG Group for $2.15 billion in April 2018 as part of the initiative and is reducing its investment in new stores.
The Restock Kroger plan announced in 2017 will involve dramatic changes in product assortments informed by data. While the retailer has traditionally appealed to shopper needs through curated assortments, the new initiative will bring that focus to more categories and stores. Kroger plans to revamp the assortment at 20% to 30% of its stores each year starting in 2018. These shifts can involve making private label products more prominent when they regularly outsell the category's national brands, adding more space to trendy categories such as sparkling water, improving product adjacencies, and optimizing assortments, particularly through integrating more natural and organic products.
Kroger's broadest promotional goals are to increase trips and basket sizes and its favorite tactics are bulk-purchase incentives, digital coupons and instant-win games. Kroger-driven programs incorporate a large number of national brands, which often provide custom materials. The Fuel Points rewards program is also a key tactic for driving trips and purchases, with bonus rewards offers on third-party gift cards or all purchases during seasonal campaigns.
Kroger is embracing the increased consumer demand for organic, natural and local products, so look for opportunities to help it appeal to environmentally conscious and health-focused shoppers. Kroger has shown a new willingness to run account-specific promotions in recent years, particularly when those efforts brings in sponsorships or cause components. Work with Kroger subsidiary 84.51° to get information on the retailer's loyalty cardholders that will allow you to tailor programs to their purchasing behavior.
Key Initiatives
National Brand Presence
Noteworthy Merchandising
Corporate Strategy
Ahold Delhaize
Amazon/Whole Foods
Kroger
Target
Walgreens
Walmart
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Home Depot
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Daniel Sabanosh Director of Shopper Marketing, Great Northern Instore
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U.S. business spans Stop & Shop, Giant Food, Giant Co., Food Lion and Hannaford chains.
Total U.S. Sales: $44.84 billion Total U.S. Stores: 1,970 stores in 23 states under six banners Shopper Count: 50 million weekly shoppers
Works with sister company Peapod Digital Labs, Chicago, to support e-commerce tech for Ahold Delhaize’s U.S. brands. Peapod ceased all its Midwest online delivery operations in February 2020 as grocery delivery heats up.
Reaches 90% of households in its markets with home delivery and click-and-collect, with nearly 70% offering same-day options.
Acquired a majority stake in New York City-based online grocer FreshDirect in January 2021.
Launching 1,500-2,000 private-label products in 2021, expanding on its existing 15,000 SKUs.
Similarly, in some of the prepared food areas, highlighting that the food is fresh as one of their key initiatives, investing in fresher and healthier offerings. Again, they’re creating this stadium-style merchandising to these products so they’re well lit, easily seen and easily grabbed.
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And then you find their mission even in small things like here in the produce area. Instead of using the long, simple straight runs of product they’re really creating these cutoffs for each different product, here you see the apples in this case, so basically, it's very easy to see the different varieties and pick what you want a little bit easier. Well-lit, well put-together. Little touches that, again, make this a better place to shop.
Inside stores, one of their other key initiatives that they're really trying to drive, is the promise to shoppers that Ahold stores are better place to shop. Here we see a Hannaford store really highlighting that and creating this almost store-within-a-store for various personal care products with the bold signage above framing out and hanging down over the department, as well as the floor covering of blue. And they’ve even invested into the endcaps to have video monitors to highlight the products being promoted there. So they’re really upgrading here in almost a consumer electronics-Best Buy kind of fashion to create a store within a store.
Next, looking at omnichannel and also synching up with the pandemic is the “you click, we shop” services that Hannaford has been rolling out. There’s definitely some clear markings out in the parking lots, driving shoppers who are using the service to these particular spots, advertising the program and making it as easy as possible for shoppers as their getting used to this new program.
Here's a great example of Ahold Delhaize (Hannaford) really trying to keep their shoppers safe, communicating as soon as you walk in using a variety of tools and signs they’re using keep their shoppers safe during these pandemic days.
85% of purchases are made using a loyalty card.
And more examples in the produce department as well about the “Fresh Picks of the Week.” It's definitely ensuring that, again, if some of your brand strategies align with that, call that out. They're doing that on their own products, so do the same if your products align with that strategy.
Part of Dependable Value is also boldly calling out sales, in this case at Food Lion, very clearly calling out the sale with bold red graphics on this endcap and even down the aisle as you can see.
Also, part of investing in the customer proposition is providing “Dependable Value.” And they took that strategy and branded it right on the dump bins, in this case right near the checkout as someone is walking down that main aisle. These were seen not just hear in Hannaford, but we saw the same activation branded to the different Ahold banners.
One of the other initiatives that Ahold is really heavily investing in is providing the best own brands that they can, and we saw this in some of the merchandising as well. They’re calling out and giving prime space to some their private label brands, bringing them out from the store shelves and out into the race track to give them prominent space and showcase the exclusive products that can help drive shopper loyalty.
It's not just they're own promotions, they're also tagging and calling out a whole variety of brand activations as well. They have that template and they're putting their signage on the temporary activations as well, really tying it all together in the store. So the shopper notices that red “Sale” tag and knows that this is Dependable Value. For brands, definitely part of the work in determining the right spend on the activations is to put that signage on so it’s not necessarily covering up of one of the brands critical messages.
And more of that in the deli. Here I wanted to highlight the whole broad sweep of this design. In terms of the signage, keeping it fresh, keeping it modern. They’re own branding is part of it. But again just a clean, upgraded look to be that place that the shopper wants to come to.
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I already talked about fresher, healthier solutions, and they’re definitely signing that throughout the store. It’s the focus in a variety of departments, in beef and seafood, and even on this gigantic hanging sign. The whole idea of fresher and healthier, they’re 100% behind that. So if your product synchs up with that strategy, it's worthwhile to make sure that you're calling it out as well.
And then the final area that they're definitely investing in as well is local, and I know I've highlighted this in a few other Retail Intel webinars. Grocery retailers are really trying to highlight that. Each Ahold banner is doing that locally, as well. In this example, a Food Lion in South Carolina, a great poster highlighting brands and products that sourced nearby. It's definitely a key strategy that they're looking to highlight. So if your brand synchs up with that, it's worth it to make sure to highlight that as well.
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Amazon/ Whole Foods
Tenth largest U.S. retailer in the U.S., 2nd largest supermarket retailer.
Total U.S. Sales: $62.5 billion Total U.S. Stores: 2,253 total stores in 34 states under 20 banners Shopper Count: 30 million weekly shoppers
Offers home delivery in 12 of the top 15 U.S. markets.
Just for U loyalty program has more than 24 million loyalty members.
Became a publicly traded company in June 2020.
Albertsons is also utilizing space inside the store to highlight and drive shoppers toward these offerings, like with this aisle violator carrying a QR code to make it easy to get right to the retailer’s website and order groceries in a very convenient fashion.
I also want to highlight a little bit about how Albertsons is promoting its omnichannel offerings and how shoppers can now get their groceries. In these next two photos, without a doubt, we know they can order online, pick-up in-store with dedicated spots in the parking lot — which is great to see, although the image is from a snowy February.
Albertsons is really playing that up throughout the store and dedicating space to the theme, and it’s not just that nice signage. The retailer is also really driving and connecting with local brands as well. This same Moline store, which is just about on the border of Iowa, drove this promotion to highlight Cody Road, a local Iowa distillery. Stores give those kinds of local brands prominent space, calling them out for the community. And it’s really great to see those sorts of efforts.
Building on that theme, throughout the store “Local is …” signage highlights shoppers, their families, their moments and, overall, the community, as being important.
I'm going to look to look at a few of Albertsons’ key strategies and implementations. And I’ll start off with their sense of community. It’s no doubt that Albertsons has a strong cause marketing focus, and part of that strategy is to drive that community and local presence. This picture, from a Jewel-Osco in Moline, Illinois, shows how stores are positioned as “my Jewel-Osco.”.
Pledged to make all private-label packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025.
Elsewhere, here’s a beautiful produce area. You can see Albertsons’ O Organic brand is put in a little bin with a “Brands you trust with the quality you love” message on the left, one way to give prominence to those brands that are driving success and value and are unique to Albertsons’ chains.
Obviously, another key strategy for Albertsons across its banners is building great private-label brands. Today, Albertsons has four $1 billion own brands and, because of the power of those brands, the retailer gives them some prime merchandising space — sometimes pretty simply, as you see here with some different candy and cereal SKUs stacked and ready to go.
And it’s not just meals. Albertsons is investing in merchandising to provide a variety of solutions throughout the store. For example, this “Healthy Skin, Healthy You” endcap stocks a variety of personal care products. Here, Albertsons is staging multi-vendor programs and making investments in merchandising for trendy product solutions that get shoppers to come to Albertsons’ chains.
Speaking of convenience, a trend that Albertsons has really taken up is the idea of providing easy meal solutions. Here in this picture, it's the “Hometown Butcher” being called out in the logo, with signage highlighting local and this convenient, quick-and-easy meal solution in a refrigerated display stocking some pre-made meals and some vegetables that can go along with those meals, along with corner shelving units for non-refrigerated items. Again, Albertsons is making it easy for shoppers who are on their way home to be able to “grab and go” with a meal solution that they can take home to their families.
Seasonal activity is also always prominent. After moving past “Big Game” activity for the Super Bowl in early February, Albertsons started diving into NCAA [college basketball] season. With March and hopefully springtime around the corner, we’re already starting to see great in-store execution highlighting these events. Also, note the various dump bins stocking own brand products along the endcap, driving incremental purchase and impulse buys all around the store.
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Here’s another NCAA display, a great activation by a few different vendors together in this lobby display. It shows Albertsons going all out for somewhat smaller, but still key events, and merchandising with CPG partners to really stand out and provide solutions for shoppers.
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Total U.S. Sales: $236.3 billion (in North America) Total U.S. Stores: 104 total physical locations in the U.S., spanning 24 Amazon Books stores, 16 Amazon Fresh grocery stores, 26 Amazon Go stores (two of them temporarily closed), 30 Amazon 4-Star locations (with four more locations coming soon), one Amazon Go Grocery location (soon to be rebranded), and seven pop-up Presented by Amazon locations (one temporarily closed). Shopper Count: More than 200 million Prime members globally (an estimated 150 million in the U.S.)
Ranked first in dunnhumby’s 2021 Retail Preference Index study (moving up from third place in 2020).
Ranked second in Fortune magazine’s “Fortune 500” list in 2021 (maintaining its spot from the prior year).
Maintained its position as the world's most valuable brand, according to the 2020 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global brands ranking compiled by Kantar and WPP..
Prime members account for roughly 65% of shoppers.
A bank of lights surrounding the perimeter of the Dash cart are critical to helping light up every package placed in the cart. Built-in cameras scan all products, and the only way they would miss a barcode is if a shopper’s finger was directly in front of it when it was placed in the cart. The cart is also equipped with scales, so it places the item in your basket when it actually lands in the cart and the scales pick up the product. Likewise, it knows if you pull out a product, working with the scanner to determine exactly what was pulled out and put back on the shelf.
The coolest technology in the Amazon Fresh store from the shopper’s perspective is the Dash smart cart. These stores are between 25,000 and 45,000 square feet, so to bring the “just walk out” technology in use at Amazon go stores to these grocery stores would be a major undertaking. Amazon is trying it at other Amazon Fresh locations, but in Schaumburg, IL, they’re trying the smart cart, which is quite interesting. The cart has a user interface with a built-in scanner so shoppers are able to use the code within their Amazon app to connect to their Prime membership account, providing a simple vehicle that can pull up a shopping list and help navigate the store but also, importantly, enable a very streamlined checkout process.
The Amazon Fresh store also features an “Ask Alexa” kiosk to help with a variety of things, whether that’s trying to locate products, trying to find more information about products, or getting help with meal planning or ingredient pairings. The Amazon voice assistant is accessible right there in the store, connecting the dots between digital and physical. This is also a way for Amazon’s flywheel approach to come to life in the physical store and get people that may already use Alexa at home to engage but also possibly convert new users to Alexa to drive adoption across the platform..
All price signs throughout the Amazon Fresh store employ digital price point technology, so pricing can be adjusted dynamically and on the fly.
Let’s take a look at some of the brick-and-mortar innovations that Amazon is bringing to the market, starting with Amazon Fresh. Inside the Schaumburg, IL, location at about five o’clock in the afternoon, most of the shoppers were Amazon employees wearing their black Amazon Fresh shirts, shopping for others, and bringing bags out for curbside pickup. That said, there were also enough individual shoppers in the store to show that the location is not simply a pickup spot.
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Another big part of Whole Foods’ community focus is their local product merchandising. Stores aim to deliver a fun, unique, comfortable and attractive experience that also elevates local products, in some cases employing banners to highlight specific rowers and suppliers that are unique to the retailer. It’s a big avenue for the retailer to connect with both suppliers as well as the shopper community.
This additional way to connect with shoppers is seemingly back up and running.
In certain Whole Foods locations, the hot bars and salad bars have re-opened following COVID-19 restrictions, and those locations are broadcasting the news right up front with signage.
The cornerstone of Amazon’s brick and mortar efforts is Whole Foods Market, with about 500 stores here in the U.S. Whole Foods portrays some very specific values, including providing a place of community as a way to satisfy and delight shoppers. That community focus includes the retailer’s salad bars and hot bars, along with adjacent seating areas.
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You may even spot a Modelo beer display complete with a base wrap, creating quite a familiar grocery-store look. Yet, overall, there is not a lot of P-O-P material at Amazon Fresh. It is a very clean environment set up for easy navigation.
The Amazon Fresh interior offers a very clean environment but still makes room for some trappings of a traditional grocery store such as lobby displays with Frito-Lay products and Coke products, positioned right up front and highlighting an Olympics promotion. So the same P-O-P aspects expected in a traditional grocery stores were brought to life in this Amazon Fresh.
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The cart tabulates orders quite efficiently and effectively. And what this all drives is seamless checkout. There’s a specific lane for the smart carts, enabling shoppers to just walk right on out of the store, complete their purchase without waiting in line or relying on an employee. The challenge is that the cart can only fit two grocery bags worth of product. You cannot stack the product up or overflow this cart, otherwise you’re interfering with the cameras and it would sound an alarm. Two grocery bags is probably enough at this point as shoppers also may not take the cart out to the parking lot. The cart stays within the building so shoppers must grab their bags of groceries, one in each hand, to walk out to their cars. So it’s a very interesting technology, even if not a perfect substitute for the normal shopping cart yet. This is just one of the new technologies Amazon is testing to improve the shopping experience.
Amazon is taking that connectivity, technology and innovation and driving that across the platform even to Whole Foods Market. In the past I’ve highlighted how Amazon really promoted Amazon Prime with signage in Whole Foods stores, and that’s probably not as frequently seen today in their stores, but here at the entrance they are really promoting utilizing the Amazon app and scanning the Prime code to get your savings. So Amazon is all about connecting that whole experience: price matching across their platform and getting savings and connecting shoppers across all of their vehicles.
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Another piece of technology spotted at Whole Foods (and this was also in the Amazon Fresh store) are the produce scales. It’s not rocket science, but the idea, especially in Whole Foods with all of the various bulk purchases available, is to get your item, weigh it and get a price sticker that pops right on and makes the whole process easier at checkout. How to handle produce is also a big feature for Amazon’s Dash smart carts: you can put in individual items without bagging them separately but you’d have to work through the PLU codes etc. and rely on the scale in the cart to weight it. It’s very possible, but even faster if you did this right at the scale and then popped it in and the scanned barcode put that item right into your list. Again, you see that same technology here at Whole Foods, making it a lot easier on the checkout end of things.
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Part of that fun, educational and nurturing aspect of Whole Foods stores is seasonal promotions. Sometimes marketers get so caught up in how different Whole Foods is from other grocers that we overlook the similarities. Endcaps, bunkers and other special display areas play up the time of the year — in this case, summer —highlighting a host of different products and promotions to drive that seasonal feeling throughout the store.
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Here’s another example of signage around some of the prepared foods options that have reopened as well as summer entertainment, great emotional opportunities for brands to connect with the community and drive sales at Whole Foods.
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Finally a little bit of note about the P-O-P vehicles that are utilized at Whole Foods Market. There are a lot of great displays that really tie back to that authentic look of Whole Foods. There are a lot of permanent displays like this one from Pacha Soap Co. So you see a lot of metal and wood type of displays they really highlight a lot of the local vendors but also could be for a variety of other brands. National brands are there as well but presented differently than you see in standard grocery stores, instead matching the Whole Foods theme of what they’re trying to achiever. So it’s not a traditional grocery retailer in that you’re not going to see the typical type of lobby displays we saw in Amazon Fresh. It’s a different look and feel that really gets brought to life in a permanent nature. So when thinking of strategies and working with the retailer, everything has to be tailored specifically to what Whole Foods does.
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Total U.S. Sales: $91.2 billion in 2020 Total U.S. Stores: 9,991 retail locations in 49 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico (as of March 2021) Shopper Count: 40 million monthly website visits and 5 million in-store visits per day
First national retailer to offer pharmacy and front store delivery chainwide.
Ranked No. 4 on the 2021 Fortune 500 list.
More than 70 million active ExtraCare loyalty cardholders enrolled.
Expanding its HealthHUB locations, with plans to have 1,000 stores open by the end of 2021.
Has more than 5.4 million monthly average CVS mobile app users.
Carries more than 7,000 private-label and exclusive products.
Floor clings and graphics continually aim to keep shoppers safe by promoting social distancing, a trend that has continued throughout the pandemic. QR codes also found on signage links to more information about vaccinations. This is another way CVS is using in-store touchpoints to connect shoppers to digital content.
There is still plenty of the COVID-19-related signage throughout CVS stores, including near entrances, highlighting its commitment to safety and cleanliness, which shoppers have looked for throughout the pandemic. CVS also makes clear that COVID-19 testing is not available inside stores, partially as a way to help reassure shoppers stores are safe.
CVS Health CEO Karen Lynch has said that its physical stores play a key part in its community-focused strategy, which positions them as a vital, local health destination for millions of Americans. This is even more important as consumers resume more “normal” activities. In CVS’ second quarter of fiscal 2021, the retailer saw an increase of 14% in retail sales.
CVS’ greeting card section is clean and uses illuminated lights and navigational signs to highlight the neatly organized area. CVS utilizes this signage throughout the stores to make finding products easier, including an extra item shoppers may not have been looking for.
Another example of CVS’ in-store merchandising tactics is its health solutions for shoppers, spanning a lot of in-aisle educational materials. CVS has historically used this type of signage to drive purchase, but it continues to build on this tactic, as evidenced through clear and differentiating shelf signage highlighting the products’ benefits and telling a brand’s story in the OTC aisle.
Interestingly, CVS is not only using that sort of merchandising vehicle to drive impulse purchases for health items, but also a host of other items throughout the store. For example, in the gift and gift card aisle, CVS positioned a similar mobile rack display to merchandise bottle of wines, deploying a “don’t forget to bring the wine” message.
An interesting activation spotted in stores is a modular solution center mobile rack, housing a variety of immunity support products. It’s positioned in the pharmacy, near the healthcare department, where shoppers often wait for a prescription or to talk to a health concierge. The display can easily be moved if the product sells fast.
CVS is a store that aims to win the seasons, particularly with help from national brands. CVS really drives the holiday presence in stores with, merchandising brands, treats and decorations using displays and temporary merchandising solutions from various manufacturers to win in this environment.
The more complicated medicines and medications from brands are, the more they may need the help of signage to explain the product and brand story at shelf. An in-aisle, custom-made display in the pain relief aisle houses kinesiology and sports tape packages and communicate the products story and uses.
Nearly 85% of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a CVS Pharmacy.
Not only temporary merchandisers, but CVS also looks to acquire incremental, high-value sales by investing in extra merchandising. For example, a permanent custom endcap merchandising premium chocolate SKUs, stands out from the other endcaps as it’s wooden make-up aims to look more luxurious and attract shoppers.
Not just in sweets, CVS also takes merchandising up a notch in the beauty category. For example, an in-aisle display merchandises natural beauty products from Burts Bees, using signage to make statements and tell the brand’s story. The retailer particularly highlights and give space to brands and products aligned with its better-for-you and the environment mindset.
Total U.S. Sales: $132.5 billion Total U.S. Stores: 2,750 Shopper Count: 11 million shoppers daily
Largest supermarket operator in the U.S.
Delivered 11 billion personalized shopper recommendations in 2020.
About 96% of all transactions are tied to the retailer’s loyalty card.
Has shopper data on 60 million households.
The retailer is also highlighting Kroger Pay, which is a feature in its mobile application that lets shoppers scan a QR code linked to a shopper’s credit or debit card to pay at checkout. In stores, the retailer specifically highlights the safety that the feature brings to connect with shoppers who want to stay safe during this pandemic. Speaking of safety, Kroger also put out a "Blueprint for Businesses" guide, which you see at left here. It provides recommendations for companies on how to run their operations during the pandemic and detailing how the retailer is working with communities and its employees to create a safe environment. The document is open source, accessible to anyone, and focuses on keeping the whole community strong and safe .
Time for all of us is precious — and no doubt even more so during the COVID-19 pandemic, when shoppers just want to go into stores, get the items they need, and get out safely. Something that I think will continue post-COVID-19 is Kroger investing in a lot of different solutions for time-strapped shoppers. In this case, you see a lot of refrigerated bunkers highlighting a variety of grab-and-go items or, as they branded this display, "grab & GOurmet shrimp." Kroger has definitely made an effort to upscale these solutions, knowing that people are trying to find meal ideas. The retailer is trying to win that share of food that is consumed at home, and offering these sort of solutions is critical to its strategy. Kroger is also trying to trade people up — in this case by spotlighting gourmet and higher-end items. CEO Rodney McMullen has noted that, once shoppers have tried high quality, it's hard for them to go back. .
The retailer uses other areas of the fresh department to spotlight seasonal offerings and trends, such as honey crisp apples for fall baking. It's just another example of how Kroger provides extra inspiration in the aisles and spotlights its freshest solutions to shoppers.
Fresh produce is a huge focus for Kroger. Chief executive officer Rodney McMullen has stated that the number-one driver of where people decide to shop is the quality of the retailer's fresh produce. Pictured here is the fresh produce department at my local store, Pick 'n Save, which is a Kroger banner. As you can see, the retailer presents produce in a very appetizing way, merchandising it in a department that is well lit and has a clean layout. A mural in the department also emphasizes the grocer's local produce offerings.
The message for this display from Bota Box might be a bit hard to read because of the white and light-green colors used, but it ties in to pairings. It's kind of fun because it's not about pairing the brand's wine to food, but instead pairing it with patio furniture. The messaging works to tie in to “patio season” and make the shopper consider another occasion for product use. The display also uses a really tall header card to create a great visual. So, these sorts of things are possible at Kroger.
I have a couple of images related to impulse purchases. This is an activation from PepsiCo/Frito-Lay that uses bold graphics that really pop and has a gravity feed device that makes the products easily accessible and at the fingertips of shoppers. The display also uses simple messaging — "Stop. Refuel. Go." — that encourages shoppers to pick up one additional bag of chips and add it to their baskets.
This is a merchandising solution from the fall that really pulled together baking needs. Baking was a huge trend during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it's also a huge trend during the winter holidays each year. Rather than having shoppers weave in and out of multiple aisles, this merchandising solution allowed them to find all the ingredients they needed for their next tasty treat in one place.
Here are some more examples of displays that leveraged the winter holiday season to encourage shoppers to load their baskets with a bunch of items and especially encourage impulse purchases, which we know have been challenged across retail as alternative, out-of-store fulfillment services have come into play.
Kroger really ties in to holiday seasons — especially in the past year, when shoppers visited fewer stores — to build shopper baskets, stage large sales and provide a great environment to merchandise seasonal items — in this case winter, holiday-related products.
Kroger is definitely investing in-store real estate to highlight its whole portfolio of services and offerings, such as digital coupons and fuel points, to influence shoppers to engage with the whole ecosystem. Kroger is finding shoppers who engage with the retailer both digitally and in stores are loyal and, specifically, have a 98% retention rate. The retailer sees this as a way to both keep loyal shoppers loyal and create new loyal shoppers as well.
Another key area for Kroger is ready-to-heat or ready-to-eat items, which build on the shopper's need for convenience.
Right now (March), the seasonal department is themed all around spring and Easter. Kroger stores are spotlighting seasonal candy, Easter baskets and gifting to build shopper baskets.
Total U.S. Sales: $77.1 billion Total U.S. Stores: 1,897 stores (140 of which are small-format stores) Shopper Count: 30 million shoppers weekly
Median age and income of a Target shopper is 40 and $64,000, respectively.
About 43% of Target shoppers have children at home and 57% completed college.
Target turned its pharmacy reins over to CVS Health.
Here is the home area. This is a key focal area for Target, particularly in these pandemic times as people are devoting their attention and spending their money on items to make their homes a more comfortable place to hunker down. And again, there utilizing some great merchandising, in this case for some of their own brands, making it an experience and showcasing items with some fancy metal and wood merchandisers to really bring it all to life. It's an area they definitely are putting a lot of emphasis and investment behind to really help these products pop.
Winning the seasons is a key strategy for Target. As they discussed a little bit in their release of third-quarter 2020 results, the company saw a very positive shopper response to back-to-school and Halloween. Even as Target is adapting through the pandemic, the company still saw these holidays as a great way of engaging their shoppers and helping them celebrate in new ways. Target makes quite a splash to have its stores provide shoppers an experience and a safe, convenient place to do their holiday shopping, as well as to prepare themselves for the holiday season. You see here it starts right at the entrance, as they've really dressed up the whole front area.
Finally, Target made a big investment in these permanent merchandisers, which initially were set up a few years ago for the holiday season to drive impulse purchases and merchandise gifting items. The company is definitely continuing to expand these merchandising units as they use them year-round. In this case, they’re highlighting their own brand, Good & Gather, and giving that brand a real great kickoff. Target just added more products to the Good & Gather line and is giving the brand great secondary placement to jumpstart it and get that brand out in front of shoppers. But, these merchandising units are also utilized by other CPG brands throughout the year for key promotions. It's a great space to look to try to acquire to really drive some great secondary placement at Target.
They also have that signage in the book area across the way as well. It’s a pretty serious, not-just-toy collaboration, which comes together online, too, with a brand showcase.
This is the FAO Schwarz collection, which is exclusive to Target. They've definitely made quite a splash with this brand on the focal endcaps. I caught this one probably before it was stocked —although I'm sure Target would like to see them look like this again in a couple weeks after they sell through quickly). But, it wasn't just in the toy area.
All the way back into the seasonal area as well, Target’s doing a lot this year dressing up that area up and merchandising decorations for the home and all the necessary items — wrapping paper, etc. — but even this year going above and beyond by installing some of the headers on motors to rotate and create motion. This is a static picture, but if you're in the store, the Christmas tree highlights some of the products they're selling and projects a light onto the ceiling, which actually rotates and moves around and provides a starry look. A variety of other accessories are plugged in to demonstrate what they’d look like in your home, but they also create a festive environment right there in the store.
And throughout the main aisleways of the store, creating quite a festive environment for the shopper.
And here is Winky Lux. Hopefully this is an activation that is entered in 2021 awards programs for merchandising. Just a wonderful example of using light to command attention. As you're walking down the aisle, you cannot miss this endcap and then, as you get up close to it, obviously the gigantic lipstick is there and there's strong education. They’ve designed this beautifully where it's flexible, the shelves can be adjusted for different product mixes, etc.. It’s just a tremendously well put-together activation that connects with Target’s shoppers and really brings this brand to life. Target is a master of working with key partners to create some great collaborative activations at retail.
And here's another example from Hims & Hers in the health area. Again, pulling all the shelves out to create a gigantic statement around what the brand stands for. Again, these are great collaborations with Target to really bring these brands to life.
More and more at Target, in the personal care and beauty areas, we’ve also seen whole endcaps taken over, where the shelves are completely removed and entire merchandising units are dropped in directly. This display for Harry's, for example, has a gigantic bold sign, a larger-than-life razor with metalized print for the blade, so it all pops out to highlight the brand’s “sharpest blade ever” and its innovation —really great, large statements.
What’s interesting to me is that we're beginning to see those become a little bit more prevalent throughout the store. Here is a Welly sidecap in the pharmacy area. Welly is a bandage company. This is kind of a cool activation [merchandising] fun bandages for your kids or yourself. Again, instead of just having the bandages in a typical sidecap, this creates a whole merchandising piece that brings the brand to life.
Elsewhere in toys, in the past few seasons Target has really started to undertake a lot of branded sidecap activity as well. Here are a couple of great examples. I love these. The shine on them really helps capture shopper attention, as well as the giant window. It really provides a great billboard, but you can see inside what the product is as it gravity-feeds down these displays. A really bold activation. We've seen these in past holiday seasons at Target.
Total U.S. Sales: $107.7 billion Total U.S. Stores: 8,915 in the 50 states and Washington, DC; plus 105 in Puerto Rico and one in the U.S. Virgin Islands Shopper Count: 8 million shoppers daily
Launched a new myWalgreens loyalty program in November 2020, replacing the 8-year-old Balance Rewards program.
Unveiled a retail media network called Walgreens Advertising Group in December 2020.
Approximately 78% of the U.S. population lives within five miles of a Walgreens, Duane Reade or Walgreens-owned Rite Aid retail pharmacy.
Parent company Walgreens Boots Alliance consists of three divisions: Retail Pharmacy USA (Walgreens), Retail Pharmacy International (Boots), and Pharmaceutical Wholesale.
Walgreens is activating multi-vendor programs. This was the subject of a recent Great Northern Instore webinar. It’s all about the retailer trying to provide solutions to shoppers. In this case, there’s a suncare floorstand that has a variety of brands on it. These programs can be complicated to put together, but they really pay out for Walgreens and drive optimized productivity and sell-through by having all the right products for shoppers. There also is the potential for some cross-category activations that really drive great shopper solutions and, being unique at Walgreens, also going to drive sales and loyalty. Again, they're complicated to put the pieces together, but done the right way with a lot of communication and coordination, they can really pay out.
If you attended our Walgreens webinar last October, you’ll remember that the retailer had released a new vendor style guide for displays in September, and it was then slightly tweaked in late October. And the creative style from that guide is definitely rolling out into stores now. No longer is there the familiar teal or light blue that used to be in the store. That has transitioned to this clean white with red, which really highlights the “myW” logo lockup. It creates a crisper look in the store. Walgreens wants to continue positioning itself as that neighborhood health destination and become a more modern pharmacy for its shoppers, and it’s really trying to create that look in store.
In the beauty area, there not only are temporary displays, but also a couple of different permanent metal displays on endcaps for products that are going to be there for a longer period of time and restocked regularly. So brands in these categories should know that this is possible as you engage with your Walgreens team on the right way to merchandise your product over the long term.
"New” is also an important message. It's called out on this endcap, and in the new style guide formats, to highlight this message to shoppers. In this case, there’s some great graphics on this drop-in to highlight these new oral care items.
On this sidecap, the main goal is to call out the value proposition. And one of the things Great Northern is working on with a lot of different vendors —and something that’s a key aspect of strategy at Walgreens now — is inventory management, getting the right amount of inventory on displays to have appropriate sell-through. It’s a very critical piece of putting together merchandising programs at Walgreens – driving the right inventory levels on the displays. This is one for Walgreens’ own brand, and actually it looks quite empty.
A lot of the style guide is constantly in effect but, when you present the right activation with the right product that Walgreens wants to stand out, you can still very clearly brand your displays. That’s demonstrated on this endcap on the left from Bliss. This is very different than the standard style guidelines and it really highlights the brand. And on the right, you have No7, which is one of Walgreens’ brands, on a nice, sophisticated-looking floorstand that nicely highlights the product, the benefits and the features. Also, the product is easily shoppable with those color-coded shelves and easily accessible as they’re cantilevered out into space. This product is not covered by corrugate; it's really out there, open and accessible.
And here's another example of that for Coty Inc.’s CoverGirl, and you see Walgreens continues to drive value with its messaging. In this case, the header card calls out, and as I said earlier it’s also in the new style guide format and templates.
As is evident here, Walgreens knows it has a little bit of work to do converting some of the members of its old loyalty program to the new myWalgreens program. And it’s definitely utilizing space in-store to call that out and drive the benefits of the program and the app to shoppers. You see that on a lot of the header cards on endcaps. This is just a great activation, and it highlights how the style guide is used for the pieces around the endcap. Procter & Gamble uses a great color-coded step system to build a regimen with these products, so it’s a really nice, easy-to-shop endcap activation.
Here’s a header promoting the use of Walgreens’ app and loyalty program. They are doing a lot of drop-ins on these endcaps as well, taking the shelves off and putting in a fully stocked unit that has all of the product on one piece, allowing for flexibility of marketing and imagery, rather than being constrained by the existing shelves on the endcaps.
Total U.S. Sales: $341 billion Total U.S. Stores: 4,748 total U.S. stores, including 3,570 supercenters, 374 traditional discount stores, 686 Neighborhood Markets and 118 other formats (as of October 2020) Shopper Count: 150 million weekly in the U.S.
The world’s largest retailer.
90% of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a Walmart store.
Ranked top in Fortune magazine’s “Fortune 500” list (for the eighth year in a row in 2020).
Ranked top in Kantar's PoweRanking (for the 24th year in a row in 2020).
75% of Walmart’s shoppers are driven by price.
Shoppers’ median household income is $60,000.
I also wanted to highlight a quote from Andrea Albright, senior vice president of merchandising, as Walmart was heading into the holiday season. I really love this quote. She said, “Walmart is ready to deliver a great holiday season for customers this year, beginning with the shopping environment and ensuring that it’s safe and convenient to shop at the retailer.”
Overall, McMillon said he saw a huge uptick in the speed at which the business moved and adapted and changed. While there's obviously a lot of work involved in understanding the store, he said that overall he sees that the speed of change is going to continue to be quicker than it has been in the past.
As we enter 2021, COVID-19 continues to drive a lot of the shopper experience at Walmart. During a keynote at the virtual CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2021 event, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon highlighted how impressed he was with the retailer's team in implementing all the various pieces that came into practice in 2020 around COVID-19. He anecdotally mentioned that teams would come up with solutions of what needed to be put in the place, whether that was digital solutions or putting protective plastic between their associates and shoppers to maintain people's safety. He kind of shook his head internally about the timelines that people were putting together thinking they were quite aggressive and couldn’t be met but, he said every time the team rose to the challenge.
Overall, there have been some big pushes to really work on the flow in the grocery area. Walmart has recently remodeled a few stores in the Chicago area, improving the produce department layout to better reflect shopper patterns in the store and make the trip easier and more convenient. We know everybody's time is precious — and so does Walmart — and they're trying to optimize and evolve their layouts and signage to improve the shopping experience.
Tying back to that Andrea Albright quote regarding convenience I mentioned earlier, Walmart's upfront grocery department really communicates quick dinners through these standees, helping shoppers find items that are going to be convenient and make their lives easier and better.
As part of their toy experience and the holiday experience, Walmart called out how they're “America's toy shop.” This year they really did a great job highlighting holiday activations with blue and yellow gift boxes all throughout the store, but particularly in the toy department, to bring that all to life.
I want to highlight a few things from our audits during the holiday timeframe. One, shoppers were able to get all their holiday goods — their tape, their wrapping paper, etc. — all in one spot.
Here is another example of a key partnership. In this case, with Hello Bello, Kristen Bell's new organic line of baby products. This is just really a tremendous activation. If you have the right insights and product, developing a partnership to create some wow merchandising like this is really going to help launch that effort, that’s something Walmart is looking to continue doing.
We are going to end with a couple of fun displays. Here, in the gum aisle, we have a four-way display tying in to the holiday season by communicating a stocking stuffer message to drive that impulse purchase.
Walmart continues to put a high emphasis on its health and wellness areas with some really phenomenal displays that are done in partnership with brands to create some great experiences. Whether that’s displays that take over the whole endcap, like the Wet n Wild in the middle that’s a whole temporary unit, or even the display on the left, which uses a backlit panel to garner attention. The retailer really captures the shopper's attention as he or she is walking down the main aisles, and it’s investing in that experience in partnership with brands.
Now this is a little battery-powered tag put up by Gatorade. I saw a few similar ones like this during the fall and holiday season in the beverage and alcohol categories. These Gatorade signs, specifically, are powered by a watch battery. The sign lets you swap out the messaging out — there were about five different messages and screens. If you're walking down the aisle, that change in the messaging provides a little emotion or something that catches the eye, encouraging shoppers to learn about the product (in this case Gatorade Bolt24).
We saw a number of activations that similarly pulled back from having shoppers interact with the display or the products, as you see in this case in the headphone area. Normally, many of these products have a pretty sophisticated tester unit where you can try on the headphones, but that was removed. Again, Walmart knows that’s the right thing to do in these times, when you don’t want to spread the virus —employees can't necessarily sanitize those units every time someone touches uses them. We saw this in a number of places in the electronics aisle, where shopper safety was number one, and that required some slight changes to how merchandising took place.
Diving a little further into providing that experience for shoppers — and toys are an easy department in which to do this— I want to highlight these little things in the Lego section. These dioramas let you see the mini-figures that come within the Lego sets. The boxes are there with the pictures, but it's a whole other thing to have to pick the box, turn it around and see the multiple views. Instead, it’s right there in the little diorama.
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And the other example of Mario is battery-operated video player that is very simple. Many times, there’s a push button for these types of activations, but in this case shoppers just wave their hand in front of the video player to activate it. Another example of thinking a little more about safety during these pandemic times and moving away from push buttons to other hands-free technologies to trigger the video to start playing.
I really like this display that Hallmark did at Walmart, particularly for the three-dimensional cards with the pop-ups. Rather than having shoppers browse the card section like they normally do, pulling out cards and opening them up themselves, there's a demo unit right there on the shelf with the cards below to be picked up and put in your basket. The display lets shoppers see the cards dimensionally without having to thumb through all of them. I really like the idea of that convenience.
Aldi Total U.S. Sales: $31 billion U.S. sales in 2019 (National Retail Federation) Total U.S. Stores: 2,000-plus in 37 states Shopper Count: 40 million-plus monthly shoppers
The Aldi Finds merchandising program builds on the “treasure hunt” concept, and the retailer really dedicates space to it – special items, impulse buys, and different products that may not be part of your typical grocery trip. They could be seasonal in nature and many times that's how they set these aisles up, whether it's holiday time, a variety of holiday baking, products, cookies, sweets or even a variety of gifts. We've even seen toys from national manufacturers displayed at Aldi. It's all about that treasure hunt, building the basket with impulse items.
And here’s a portable display using the same theme. This really highlights local brands, bringing companies and products that are produced nearby to shoppers. It's a very meaningful strategy for these grocers.
One thing that many of these regional grocers do very well is present “Local.” A key part of their strategy is being part of the community, and they therefore definitely highlight brands and products that are local. Here’s an endcap doing that.
Here is another pretty cool activation. In the realm of the treasure hunt again, Publix is really trying to drive and grow sales with their local shopper base. This is a nice, cool, compressed side cap that we that's focused on creating your own six-pack. You select a whole bunch of these microbrews, also some national brands maybe, and create your own. Kind of a cool little promotion.
Regional grocers want to highlight fresh. Some retailers highlight this a little bit more, but it goes along with the “local” focus we already discussed. We talked about this with some of the other bigger national chains in some of our other recent webinars, too. Fresh is critical to win in grocery. These regional grocers are really focused on that, and so they dedicate signage and space accordingly. You see this little standee here highlighting fresh — really making sure they're bringing that across to their shoppers.
Regional grocers don't normally have the large scale of the bigger grocery chains or mass merchants, where you’ll see a lot of different, fun endcaps or display customization. Both of these pictures are from ShopRite. On the left, you have their standard promotional endcap that is pretty basic, some more straightforward, easy-to-execute temporary merchandising. But you do see activations like this one from Kellogg's on the right that do have some customization and really pop the brand and, in this case, own this spot permanently at ShopRite.
In many regards, regional grocers do things in a similar fashion when it comes to in-store activation. We're very familiar at Great Northern Instore with the displays that use in their aisles, and most of them will have various units set up. They need to be easy to set up — simple prepack displays that are ready to go — and then just present the product wonderfully to the shopper. Here, for instance, is a great Sun Bum display that really pops the brand, making it stand out at these retailers.
Southeastern Grocers Total U.S. Sales: $9.6 billion (est.) Total U.S. Stores: 420 stores across three banners in five Southeastern states. Shopper Count: 7 million active loyalty members
Ahold Delhaize Total U.S. Sales: $52 billion in U.S. Total U.S. Stores: Nearly 2,000 across five banners in 23 Eastern states Shopper Count: 54 million weekly shoppers
H-E-B Total U.S. Sales: $32 billion Total U.S. Stores: Roughly 400 in Texas Shopper Count: Has highest trip frequency in supermarket channel (Placer.ai)
Publix Total U.S. Sales: $44.9 billion Total U.S. Stores: Nearly 1,300 stores in seven Southeastern states Shopper Count: Launched first-ever loyalty program in 2020
ShopRite Total U.S. Stores: 280 stores in six Eastern states Total U.S. Sales: $18.3 billion in fiscal 2020 (for parent Wakefern Food Corp.) Shopper Count: 7 million weekly shoppers
And that's not just at Aldi, of course. We saw similar displays in a variety of these other regional grocers as well, trying to take advantage of the marketplace that they have, whether that's by offering springtime seeds for planting the garden like with these Burpee displays, or if you're closer to the beach and touristy areas, having some of those grab-and-go hats, summer apparel, etc. So, think about their product mix as bringing to life a lot of different items that are suitable for the local audience and really driving and helping build the basket while serving as that local. go-to store.
Kroger Total U.S. Sales: $132.5 billion Total U.S. Stores: 2,750
Walmart plans to leverage its digital screens at self-checkout kiosks to allow brands to advertise and drive sales and conversion. The mass merchant aims to use its self-checkout screens to showcase brands that are on target (based on day or time, etc.) and serve up relevant content to shoppers based on what a shopper scans.
Walmart has more than 170,000 screens across its stores through its self-checkout kiosks and TV walls, which essentially act as giant billboards with 30-plus screens per store. According to the retailer, 64% of Walmart shoppers will say they are influenced by these ads on the TV wall. Additionally, Walmarts says millions of people visit the electronics department weekly and that really helps these ads drive impact, boosting awareness, as well as highlighting seasonal SKUs and key price changes that can really help drive and trigger sales.
Despite the surge of online grocery shopping driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, a majority of retail sales still come from physical, brick-and-mortar stores. At Walmart specifically, there are a lot of screens that can be used for advertising, offering opportunities to get brands' messages in front of shoppers where a lot of purchase decisions are being made.
In Wisconsin-based Woodman's Markets stores, screens are just about everywhere. The retailer is among the multiple regional grocers partnering with the Grocery TV network, which is a network that is in more than 6,100 stores and that can now deliver 540+ million impressions per month. Interestingly, a lot of Grocery TV’s technology uses camera verification to understand impressions and dwell time of shoppers in front of these screens. They are also selling video ads that are very quick hitting — 6 to 15 seconds — aiming to be fast-hitting, grab attention and, hopefully, make that conversion and make that brand impression there in the checkout area.
Screens via Media Works spotlight the latest sales at select stores. Rather than picking up the paper circular, shoppers can simply glimpse the latest promotions and view brand advertisements on these 4K monitors, which are pretty sizable. The ads are pretty impactful as shoppers usually stop at the entrance of a store to pick up a cart and, especially these days, sanitize them.
Media Works offers advertising through screens attached to sanitizing stands. Though launched before the COVID-19 pandemic, Media Works’ business model thrived during the pandemic. The company works with a number of relatively local grocers, but they have a national footprint across the Midwest and Eastern U.S. It's an interesting advertising vehicle as shoppers are very concerned about health safety during these times and usually grab a wipe to wipe down their shopping cart at the entrance.
Walgreens Total U.S. Sales: $107.7 billion Total U.S. Stores: 8,915
Target Total U.S. Sales: $92.4 billion Total U.S. Stores: 1,897
Family Dollar Total U.S. Sales: $12.2 billion Total U.S. Stores: 7,880
Walmart Total U.S. Sales: $370 billion Total U.S. Stores: 4,743
Albertsons Cos. Total U.S. Sales: $69.7 billion Total U.S. Stores: 2,277
Amazon Total Sales: $236.3 billion in North America Total U.S. Stores: 104 physical locations
RETAILER PROFILE: AMAZON/WHOLE FOODS
Street Address City, St Zip Country Phone: xxx.xxx.xxxx www.amazon.com
Total U.S. Sales: $170.8 billion (in North America) Total U.S. Stores: 94 total physical locations in the U.S. (24 Amazon Books stores, five Amazon Fresh grocery stores, two AmazonFresh Pickup locations, 26 Amazon Go stores, 28 Amazon 4-Star locations, two Amazon Go Grocery locations, and seven pop-up Presented by Amazon locations Shopper Count: 150 million Prime members globally (estimated 126 million in the U.S.)
Maintained its position as the world's most valuable brand, according to the 2020 BrandZ Top 100.
Ranked second in Fortune magazine’s “Fortune 500” list in 2020 (moving up from fifth place in 2019).
Another key strategic initiative as Whole Foods tries to surprise and satisfy their customers is providing the highest-quality natural, organic foods. And as part of that, stores definitely put a huge emphasis on supporting local suppliers. You see that here in the produce area with some generic overhead signage.
Another key initiative is to highlight Whole Foods’ Amazon Prime partnership and promote specific Amazon Prime deals, which you see here. Online at amazon.com, they highlight to look for the blue signs in the store and, sure enough, as you wander in the produce section you find those signs with the blue dots spotlighting exclusive deals for Amazon Prime members. They’re utilizing a decent amount of space to really highlight this and create a larger and larger connective tissue between Amazon Prime and Whole Foods.
On the left the people you see are the personal shoppers who were collecting the orders from the sales floor. And there are printers set up so the bags can be tagged and then placed and organized on the shelves at right. As you can see it's kind of a pretty temporary setup, but I can only imagine that we'll see some optimization and improvement of this process as we move forward knowing the amount of “pick and click” pick that's now taking place.
In the store I visited, they've taken out the whole seating area where people can normally congregate to at some of the retailer’s prepared food or have a beverage. It's all been taken out, obviously in these times of social distancing, and they've instead created this little hub for their BOPIS fulfillment.
I'm going to dive a little bit into what's going on inside the store at Whole Foods. And the first thing I'm going to highlight is that they're beginning to repurpose and figure out better ways to drive the fulfillment of all of the “click and pick” orders they’re now getting.
Most Valuable Global brands ranking compiled by Kantar and WPP.
And then even simpler, a variety of kitchen implements on a simple wire rack, but right there in the produce section. So as you're buying produce, there's the right implement to help you cut, slice, skin, etc. there instead of making you go find them in the kitchen utensils aisle. So with the right insights, and I know I highlight this with a lot of the retailers we cover in the Retail Intel series, they really bring those cross-merchandising ideas to life to help build baskets.
A few other examples because Whole Foods is typically pretty straightforward in terms of merchandising, utilizing their shelves and not a lot of spectacular displays like you’ll see in other grocery stores, But, that said, there are still a variety of elements that really come to life. And among them are a variety of vehicles that can really help drive secondary purchase, cross-merchandising and basket-building. So here you see this nice little gravity rack on the shelf in the water aisle.
But I also wanted to highlight this picture, in the bakery section here in the Chicago area, where they promote Lucia's AlphaGlores, which are Argentine pastries. I wanted to share a picture or a close-up image, but that probably would be unfair for everybody because it would just make your mouths drool too much. But again, Whole Foods is really going all-in with these local partnerships and really utilizing a lot of space to highlight them and bring those relevant products to life for their shoppers.
Here’s another interesting change. Normally, a big part of the store experience is the fresh-serve bars, which obviously are out of commission at the moment. So stores are utilizing that area to offer take-home prepared meals, all at the ready prepackaged so shoppers can just grab and go.
Our final piece here, which ties a lot of the different things together, isn't necessarily the spirits one that's highlighted there but the piece right next to it. It’s a display for Vitani cocktails. Yes, there are branded merchandisers that can get sold into Whole Foods. But this is also a local company here in the Chicago area, out of Northbrook, Illinois, so this is a local partnership. And also at the top, a whole tie-in around COVID-19, explaining how this company is helping out during the pandemic, promising an amount from each purchase being given to the causes that they're supporting. This is highlighting a great partnership with Whole Foods: getting that branded merchandiser that is local and also very relevant to these times.
These are Boiron products, which are homeopathic medicines. There’s a lot of variety here in small bottles, not always that easy to find. If you read the fine print, they actually do have an app to help you select the right medicine, but also notice at the shelf lip there in the middle, the right three sections all have little pull-out tabs where you can get more information right there to shelf. You’ve got the high-tech way, to take out your smartphone and download their app, and we know that's very challenging. But with the right insights, to assist a complicated purchase decision, Whole Foods partnered with this company to drive a piece that can deliver more education and information about the product right there at the shelf.
RETAILER PROFILE: CVS PHARMACY
Street Address City, St Zip Country Phone: xxx.xxx.xxxx www.cvs.com
Largest integrated pharmacy healthcare provider in the U.S.
Total U.S. Sales: $86.6 billion Total U.S. Stores: 9,941 retail locations in 49 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico; 1,725 of which are retail pharmacies located within Target (including 80 clinics) Shopper Count: 5 million daily shoppers
Nearly 70% of the U.S. population lives within three miles of a CVS Pharmacy.
The final area that I want to touch on is value. CVS has also made a strong statement, which is probably very relevant today amid difficult economic times, by highlighting value.
The next area in which CVS has historically really made a name for itself is beauty, because they see beauty as not just skin-deep but part of overall health that helps someone feel good by looking good. CVS has made some great investments in the beauty area. In this picture here, right up front, you see an endcap where they invested in LED lighting investment to really help these products pop and stand out.
Here are just a couple of images about how CVS is addressing COVID-19 and using vehicles to help people socially distance, whether that's a big sign highlighting safety protocols or floor clings to help people stay apart. As you can see in the photo, one cling is already beginning to peel off the carpeting. CVS is also putting out various sanitizing stations, in this photo a sanitizing wipe station back near the pharmacy. Again, all of the messaging is trying to keep the store clean and therefore safe for shoppers.
At CVS, it's all about what the chain states as a very clear purpose: helping people on their path to better health. So right here, next to the purpose, I have an image. Even in the snacking area near the front of stores, CVS uses aisle violators to really call out purposeful choices and different key product benefits. Using great iconography to highlight key products or types that consumers should be shopping and looking for, this signage helps shoppers make the right selections on their path to better health.
Operating nearly 450 (and counting) HealthHUB locations spanning 30 states as of November 2020.
And it's not just that endcap. As you walk through the main aisleways in the store, CVS has various dump bins that highlight key value items that the retailer is bringing to its customers, trying to encourage that extra item be placed in the basket. That is a great value for shoppers.
But it's not just that section, in the beauty area CVS uses a value spot in a bold yellow color so it stands out and lets shoppers see it clearly.
In this case, CVS created a whole seasonal section around dollar deals, which included signage as well as messaging right on PDQ trays.
These displays have been in stores for a while but again, there is more permanent endcap fixturing that allows brands to convey their message and merchandise a whole host of their products all in one space. The displays also kind of neatly — both right at the front and also on the side panels —provide education as well as merchandise additional products to utilize all of the available space. So again, CVS is going out of its way to provide a great experience for its shoppers to understand and learn about key products in this category.
Brands can also connect with categories. In this case, 3M’s Futuro brand of various athletic products highlights the whole category and provides some tips to help shoppers choose the right product. In the upper, center part of the display, there's a QR code that drives you to an online digital tool that also helps you choose the right product. So again, it’s all about helping the shopper get to the right product that's going to get them on their journey toward better health.
Now, building back into that journey for health, a lot of CVS' initiatives focus heavily on online activity and how to engage shoppers, educate them and even implement some innovative tools for self-service. In the store, what we're seeing in the health area is that CVS definitely allows various brands to make statements to help educate shoppers all around key products, launches or categories. In this case, highlighting some arthritis pain information using a big and bold orange shelf tray right on the top shelf, showcasing the product, its key benefits and even actually showcasing that it is “coming soon.” Giving space for that messaging is powerful to really line up with brand messaging as new items are coming out to market.
More than 5.4 million monthly average CVS mobile app users.
RETAILER PROFILE: TARGET
Street Address City, St Zip Country Phone: xxx.xxx.xxxx www.target.com
RETAILER PROFILE: WALGREENS
Street Address City, St Zip Country Phone: xxx.xxx.xxxx www.walgreens.com
Approximately 78% of the U.S. population lives within five miles of a Walgreens, Duane Reade or Walgreens-owned Rite Aid retail pharmacy as of August 2020.
Entered the retail media network game in December 2020 with the launch of Walgreens Advertising Group.
Replaced the 8-year-old Balance Rewards loyalty program in November 2020 with myWalgreens, which allows members to earn Walgreens Cash on eligible purchases.
And finally, I wanted to highlight the latest style guide that got published in September 2020. Here we see that Walgreens is looking to bring the branding for its new myWalgreens loyalty program into the store under the “myW” logo. Look for this to really hit stores most likely in the 2020 March time frame next year — because it does take time, obviously, from the initial launch of the style guide to start getting activations into the store. You'll see a little bit of bridge-type creative in January-February, but they’ll really start to carry out the overall look and feel in the store a bit later.
Now, they have the overall style guide, but they also have seasonal toolboxes that get published on a regular basis to ensure and create a particular look and feel in this seasonal aisle. In this case, you can see that clearly called out in the back-to-school time frame with a slightly different shade of blue. Some different headers, all highlighting what actually was a great program that's connected to giving back to teachers. It’s a style guide that's created specifically for the season. So look for that if you do run seasonal promotions.
Here are some more examples of that on the back side of the store, but, again, what Walgreens loves to focus on is creating that uniform experience and clearly calling out the “Rewards,” as you see on this Listerine endcap, where the header card boldly calls out the benefits, in terms of the rewards as well as the retailer’s loyalty program. It’s really tied in. And they're very strict in putting together a style guide that they expect will be followed by brands to create this uniform look.
One of the first things that I think is pretty familiar for everyone is that Walgreens has always been a store that has a focused style guide to really create a strong, unified appearance in its stores – that really helps keep the store clean and straightforward – and what's also been highly important to them of late, is calling out value clearly to the shoppers. In this picture, you can see that familiar teal color, repeated along all the endcaps and built into the PDQ trays, as well as on the sidecap pieces. A pretty familiar site to everybody who visits Walgreens.
Here’s a picture showcasing Halloween. Again, dressing up the endcaps per the seasonal toolkit that fits and creates a themed experience for shoppers.
Here’s another example in the beauty area, highlighting Rewards even on a sidecap. But also critical is making sure — although this case is a sidecap with actually quite-low inventory that the right amount of product is going into the promotions so there's appropriate sell-through available throughout the chain. That's been another key initiative that we're seeing with our customers at Walgreens.
That said, throughout the store there are some differences as you move from department to department. Beauty has historically gotten a different color treatment – in this case, pink, to really differentiate that area of the store. But again, you can see clearly the value called out, right at the top. Something critical that they want to ensure all activations do.
It also doesn't just end on the temporary promotional materials. Walgreens, particularly around innovation and new item launches, will do several different things with their CPG partners and vendors to create statements, especially in the health areas, to call out the new items and their benefits in different merchandising ways in the aisle at the shelf. These are not promotional vehicles that are up for a fairly short amount of time, but something that will last for the first six or nine months, even a year on shelf to really kick off that launch and get a product started off right if it's seen by Walgreens as a go-to initiative. It’s definitely something else that they lean into to create those experiences, particularly in core categories that help them position stores as that neighborhood health destination.
And so it’s not just traditional vehicles and straightforward floorstands that they accept. We love this little Zarbee’s floorstand here. Maybe a little bit small and short, but it allows the various intricacies here to really merchandise the product, the bright yellow adds pop, and a whole lot of structure creates a 3-D look that creates something different and highlights this as something that deserves attention as a shopper is walking through the store.
Here’s a little bit of a hybrid on a traditional endcap. Advil got a drop-in piece that was very specific to its product that really calls out the benefits for that merchandise, as it’s slightly differently, to really stand out and help it pop. When the brand message needs to be carried through and you have a compelling innovation or brand story, that is part of what Walgreens wants to highlight in the store. A nice clean look, a unified look, but again realizing that brands need to tell their stories, too. So that is definitely part of how Walgreens enables brands to go to market.
Now, after looking all of this around the store with regards to the style guide and the rigidity toward colors and promotional focus that we saw, Walgreens actually does enable a decent amount of flexibility if a brand has a specific key innovation or key promotion that's it wants highlighted. You can see examples of that throughout the store as well. Here you see Olay highlighting its products on a completely branded endcap rather than in the traditional teal color or the beauty pink – really calling out the brand and allowing Olay to tell the story and benefits around the product.
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