Oct 28, 2011 IRI/Morning NewsBeat

Below is the list of articles you will find for the week ending 10/28/11 edition of Retail Industry News.

- Chicago To Get 17 New Supermarkets As Part Of Food Desert Solution
- Sansolo Speaks: From the Middle to Madrid
- Study: People Don’t Use Nutrition Labels As Much As They Say They Do
- The Trader Joe’s Conundrum: Expand, But Keep Its Eclectic Vibe
- Food Lion’s Newly-Remodeled Stores
- Dean Janeway Retires After 45 Years At Wakefern; Joseph Sheridan Becomes COO
- FastNewsBeat
- The MNB Wal-Mart Watch
- Executive Suite

Click here to read Retail Industry News

Benchmarking 101

Many companies use benchmarking practices to compare themselves against companies both inside and outside of their industry in order to keep pace with best practices and identify performance gaps. In the October edition of Willard Bishop Competitive Edge, author Paul Weitzel discusses some of the basics of benchmarking and describes how companies who do it well are among the best-in-class.

According to Weitzel, benchmarking studies across the retail landscape have dwindled in number over the past few years. It is his prediction that companies will begin to manage their own benchmarking programs in order to regain some of the benefits and visibility.

Weitzel describes two common approaches. The first is called Performance Benchmarking which compares key performance indicators with best-in-class competitors. This type of barometer answers the question of how you compare against the competition. The second kind is called Process Benchmarking which tells you exactly how you can improve and close any identified gaps.

Collecting the data and insights for benchmarking happens in a couple of ways. The first is collaboration within the industry and is generally done through share groups. The next is to use a third-party firm. Both approaches are effective and both have strengths and weaknesses. Either way, the best users of benchmarking have a well-organized, formal and budgeted approach.

This issue of Competitive Edge is important to NARMS members for two reasons. The first is that many of the initiatives that at-retail merchandising and marketing companies are called on to perform come directly from benchmarking practices and data. To know what your customers are doing on that front is to be a step ahead. The second is to apply the practice to your own organization within the at-retail industry. Take a few moments to download and read the report for a thorough primer for the practice of benchmarking.

Drug Stores Seek Market Share Remedy

Drug chains are fighting a daily battle for market share. With saturation in many markets, pharmacies prevalent in Mass Merchant and Supermarket chains, smaller multiple footprint Dollar Stores and new small format Discounters there is very little room for growth or error. Drug chains are fighting back by reinventing themselves.

As outlined in this story by Elaine Misonzhnik in RetailTraffic, Drug chains are finding new ways and reasons for consumers to visit them more often. Although market saturation is a problem, it is also part of the solution. In an effort to turn channel blurring back in their favor, drug chains are expanding the selection of goods and services to become more relevant. They are introducing upscale concepts, urban store concepts, co-branded stores and value store formats. They are also adding private label lines and new products such as liquor.

Duane Reade and parent Walgreen Co. have been busy remodeling stores. Walgreen Co. is selling beer and wine in 3,500 of 7,000 stores. Walgreen Co. also operates more than 360 Take Care Clinics at its stores. Duane Reade introduced the DR Delish and Apt. 5 Goes Green private label lines. Walgreen Co. has included a line of consumables products called Nice!

CVS Caremark converted up to 300 of its units to an urban store concept. It plans to do another 200 conversions by the end of 2011. CVS has also gotten into the private label game with the introduction of Just the Basics, a line of grocery, household, personal care and baby care items. The company continues to open MinuteClinics, which now number 598 units and plans to add 100 more.

Rite Aid Corp. is working with Supervalu to operate 10 co-branded stores. The stores carry Rite Aid health and beauty products and Save-a-Lot groceries. Both parties are working on expanding the concept. Rite Aid Corp. has also converted stores to a wellness model. Plans are to make this the prototype for an ongoing remodel program. A value format is also in the mix. Rite Aid also is opening PromptCare clinics in some stores and has a private label line called Simplify.

With this kind of hyper-activity in the Drug Channel, manufacturers and retailers need help executing the constant state of change in-store. The members of NARMS, professional at-retail merchandising and marketing service companies, are perfectly positioned with the cure.

Oct 21, 2011 IRI/Morning NewsBeat

Below is the list of articles you will find for the week ending 10/21/11 edition of Retail Industry News.

- Walmart Gives Heave-Ho To Marketplace Format
- Sansolo Speaks: Some Things Can’t Be Faked
- Technology + Economic Hard Times = Fewer Impulse Purchases
- Wegmans Opens In Beantown. Crowds Converge. The Media Swoons.
- Wegmans To Get New Competition In New York State
- Price Chopper Launches New Online Shopping Venture
- Whole Foods Expands No Checks Policy
- Report Looks At Average Savings Accumulated Since Limits On Hidden Swipe Fees
- FastNewsBeat
- The MNB Wal-Mart Watch
- Executive Suite

Click here to read Retail Industry News

Shopper Marketing Enables Growth

The Grocery Manufacturers Association, Booz & Co. and Shopper Sciences recently released research that says companies using shopper marketing programs are seeing increased sales and better returns for their marketing dollars. According to this story in Supermarket News, the growth in shopper marketing puts a focus on real solutions for shoppers and creates value beyond price promotion.

NARMS own Top Shelf blog this week discussed the decrease in impulse purchasing and the increase in single mission shopping. GMA Senior Director Brian Lynch says shopper marketing uses customer insight and a collaborative approach to win the trip before the shopper gets to the store and increase purchases once they have arrived.

The study shares four components that are common among best-in-class shopper solutions. The first is the ability to develop and integrate consumer and shopper insights. The second is to understand the needs of retailers. The third is to work with external partners to deploy shopper solutions across the path to purchase. The fourth is to build a shopper marketing program that can both execute and measure the results of shopper solution initiatives.

The members of NARMS provide the kinds of at-retail merchandising and marketing solutions that can power the shopper marketing engine. On the front end, they can provide shelf data through audit and mystery shopping services that will provide an intimate portrait of your consumer and how they interact with and experience the retailer. In the middle, they can expertly and quickly deploy tactics that speak directly to the needs of the consumer. A few examples would be building displays, realigning product adjacencies or executing in-store product sampling and demos. And finally, many members employ cutting edge hand-held technology and sophisticated data handling capabilities and systems that help manufacturers and retailers understand the consumer and the retail environment.

Losing the Impulse

They are called impulse purchases and they are dying out across the retail landscape. The reason is fairly simple. Consumers, motivated by tighter budgets, are much better informed about exactly what they are looking for and go to the store with a firm plan and stick to it. A recent story on Bloomberg.com has several tags for this shopper behavior. But whether you call it surgical shopping, mission shopping or shopping like a man, the behavior is engrained and is a direct threat to traditional retail principles.

As the story points out, many retailers have thrived on the strategy to get shoppers into the store and then up-sell them on things they did not intend to buy. But the presence of online shopping, ironically put in place by the retailers themselves, has trained the consumer to focus their wants and needs. That behavior has spilled over to the bricks-and-mortar side of retailing.

Impulse sales require consumers to browse the floor. But mission shoppers visit fewer stores and spend less time in the store. The story quotes a ShopperTrak statistic that says shoppers now visit three stores per trip versus five before the recession. Another telling stat from NRF says that although retail sales grew 3.5 percent last year, store traffic declined 0.5 percent. Historically, traffic and sales growth move in tandem.

Retailers responded to down economic times by cutting back on store upgrades and reducing sales staff. This further drove consumers to the web and further entrenched the behavior. The evidence points to the consumer being farther ahead of the retailer at this point and the retailer is playing catch-up.

There are many examples of how retailers are combating this challenge and they all involve making sweeping changes in-store. If consumers really are on a mission, the retailer has to make sure that the product is in-stock and on shelf or risk losing the shopper altogether. In-store events are becoming a more prevalent tool for retailers to retain consumers longer and enhance the shopping experience. Samples and demos grab their attention for just a few more moments, but they are important moments. Departments and sections are being realigned to put complementary products in the path to purchase.

All of these activities require labor in a time when retailers are cutting stores and store staffs. At-retail merchandising and marketing service companies not only deliver these services, but they do so with trained, expert in-store personnel. This variable cost model allows manufacturers and retailers to play catch-up without acquiring any more fixed costs and provides sales lift at the same time. A third-party, outsourced solution at-retail is more important than ever.

Oct 14, 2011 IRI/Morning NewsBeat

Below is the list of articles you will find for the week ending 10/14/11 edition of Retail Industry News.
- Wegmans To Open First Boston-Area Store
- Winn-Dixie’s Transformational Efforts Said To Be Paying Off
- Sansolo Speaks: On and Off Thin Ice
- - Walmart To Use Facebook To Get Local With Product, Price Promotions
- Supermarkets Adapt Mobile Technology To Attract Customers, Make Sales
- FreshDirect Expands Long Island Presence
- Walmart Sees Light At The End Of The U.S. Tunnel
- Target To Sell Only Sustainable Fish By 2015
- FastNewsBeat
- The MNB Wal-Mart Watch
- Executive Suite

Click here to read Retail Industry News

Rating Supplier Support

At-retail merchandising and marketing support from suppliers to their retail partners covers a wide spectrum. Some take a defensive stance and supply support as a necessary evil or a cost of doing business. Others take the concept to an entirely new level and see progressive in-store programs as a strategic business and relationship building activity. This week, Supermarket News Editor-in Chief David Orgel shares some of the winners of the Supplier Leadership Awards. The SN editorial staff picks the winners from an industry nominated group.

In his column, Orgel shares that a SN survey rated overall supplier support of retailer needs as a 6.43 on a scale from 1 to 10. In the past, the Supplier Leadership Awards were based on supermarket categories. The search has now broadened its scope and is inclusive of best-in-class ideas in all channels.

All of the winners were not shared in this story, but a few were highlighted including: Mars Chocolate North America for Product Innovation, Campbell Soup Co. for Shopper Insights, Sara Lee and Procter & Gamble for Cause Marketing, Kellogg for Unsaleables Reduction and The Clorox Co. for Collaboration. Click on each to read a profile on the specifics of the individual programs.

Not all of these award categories include the need for at-retail execution. But in reading each profile story and using some creativity, members of NARMS can find unique applications for their services to not only help suppliers move goods, but to also raise the profile of the manufacturer in the eyes of their retail partners. Consult with your manufacturer customers and find out about all of their retail support programs. It is only by fully understanding all of their needs that we can fully support them in the manner that they want to support the retailer.

A Case Study for At-Retail Support

A main selling proposition used by NARMS members to secure business has come to the forefront in a big way. Amid stiff competition, shrinking margins and shrinking labor budgets, store workers have less time to stock shelves. A vivid example of this was brought to light last week when it was revealed in Bloomberg Businessweek that Wal-Mart has brought in third-party at-retail agencies to help them with a growing out-of-stock problem.

According to the story, the retail giant has hired at-retail merchandising and marketing service firms to visit stores and track out-of-stocks. The main driver for the problem is an attempt to return thousands of items to store shelves that had been removed as a result of a failed sku rationalization attempt. The surge has resulted in crowded storage space and pressure on thin store staffs.

What was once a case study for merchandising and moving products has become a case study for the value of third-party, in-store labor. The now classic Merchandising Gap theory, which has been around over a decade, seems to resonate better now than ever. The theory explains that dwindling at-retail resources combined with increased use of sales building in-store initiatives creates a gap that retailers struggle to fill. In the case of Wal-Mart, the blitz of new products has widened the gap even further.

The good news is that Wal-Mart has realized that the members of NARMS are perfectly suited to fill the Merchandising Gap. These professionals in store-level execution provide trained and experienced retail merchandisers that can be deployed at retail locations across the country. Their services are designed to fit into the go-to-market plans, and budgets, of CPG manufacturers and retailers alike. Many programs result in sales lifts that more than pay for the service, so it is not just a cost of doing business.

Take a few minutes to read the story and then share it with your sales staffs, associates, customers and prospects. It provides a crystal clear example of who NARMS members are and what they do.

Oct 7, 2011 IRI/Morning NewsBeat

Below is the list of articles you will find for the week ending 10/7/11 edition of Retail Industry News.
- The Reconsideration of Self-Checkout
- Sansolo Speaks: Wrong Questions
- The Road To Frugality May Be A One-Way Street
- Tesco To Roll Out Card Program Chain-Wide In U.S.
- NRF Projects Good If Not Great Holiday Shopping Season
- FastNewsBeat
- The MNB Wal-Mart Watch
- Executive Suite

Click here to read Retail Industry News