In recent years the profile of customers in supermarkets has evolved dramatically, changing their shopping habits with an objective in line with the global reality we live: get the most savings in your weekly purchases without sacrificing a quality and breadth in the assortment of products.
In this way, new consumers are buying more frequently in our stores, but in less quantities.
With these changes in purchasing trends and taking advantage of the brand new 2018, it’s advisable to work hard on adapting the assortments of products in our supermarkets, starting with satisfying the needs of our customers so that they have all the options they want.
This does not mean that we have to expand the assortment. On the contrary, since a greater breadth and depth of the assortment causes an increase in the difficulty of the election process by the client, besides affecting us in our operational costs, which would mean the practice impossibility of becoming cheaper within such a varied competition.
We will need to carry out the elimination of unnecessary costs in order to lower the prices of staple basic products and this involves a mandatory reduction of assortment.
Less assortment in supermarkets
“If a product does not sell then it is an excellent clue that is not needed.” With this phrase, the leading supermarket chain in Spain, Mercadona, began the purification and elimination of nearly 1,000 products in its corridors a few years ago, marking a global trend in the purification of assortments with a very basic exercise: the products that did not have an average of one daily unit, were duplicated by different brands, or those that did not respond clearly to the needs of their clients were definitively discontinued.
Contrary to what retail at the end of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century has pointed out to us, having the largest assortments does not always benefit the consumer’s choice because it creates confusion, increasing the probability of delaying the purchase decision and “forcing” the client to stay longer in supermarkets.
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The Modern Retail no longer works like this, customers want convenience and speed in the purchase process, which will result in their fidelity to our store or chain of stores, as well as a much more frequent level of visits.
Most of our improvement and decrease in prices will be achieved through the adaptation of products in our sales corridors. It should be noted that leading global chains such as Walmart or Tesco have already implemented assortment strategies based on a reduction in inventory and an increase in turnover.
This work must be carried out as a real “surgery” exercise, because any mistake in that cleaning of the assortment can be very negative at the sales level, therefore, it will be very important to maintain a “feedback” and constant communication with our regular customers.