to the Special Report

SN SPECIAL REPORT
F O R T H E H O L I DAYS
How do you
become the
“it” resource
for the holidays?
ADV ERTISEM ENT
Lighting the fire
for holiday sales
publications/catalogs. It is more
vital for retailers to include digital
in their marketing mix — to build
buzz and spark conversations with
consumers at different points in
their paths to purchase, to instill a
desirable store-destination image
and steer trip and purchase decisions in their favor.
Digital is effective because more
shoppers than ever use smartphones and tablets to plan their
holiday food and gift buys. These
omnichannel shoppers can be
reached and persuaded wherever
they are, and they respond to
promotional offers such as digital
coupons, check-in rewards, and
in-store messages sent to their mobile devices that suggest companion buys while they’re in the aisles.
Though supermarkets continue
to make digital strides, other food
sellers are ahead of them. The
quicker they step up their efforts,
the sooner they can compete and
become the “it” resources for the
holidays.
Maximize total-store
opportunities, offset
challenges
he question, “What’s Hot
For The Holidays,” matters
most when shoppers feel
supermarkets earn their deep
embrace throughout the festive Q4
period.
T
all kinds of stores already sell
many of the same products. To
connect with consumers on many
levels and to be far more embraceable and productive, supermarkets
proactively aim to improve on:
Food-store operators plan and
category-manage many aspects of
holiday selling as much as a year
in advance, so they can be seen
as a welcome spot for shoppers.
But the squeeze is on — shoppers demand much more than
classic moves in holiday 2014
to help stoke their celebrations
of Halloween, Thanksgiving,
Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa
and New Year’s Eve. They want
supermarkets to be inventive,
inspirational, timely, fun, valuedriven and convenient. The new
ways people shop — with purpose
to fill multiple missions, and aided
by technology tools — blend
with fresh competition to set new
standards for what it takes to be a
Q4 leader.
rhow effectively they can perform
as robust, well-stocked, go-to
destinations;
Excel on holiday’s big
emotional stage
It’s the retail shopping experience
that sets competitors apart since
supermarketnews.com
rhow much fun they are to shop;
rhow original, inspiring and
confidence-building their
holiday ideas are, especially in
the deli, prepared and specialty
foods, and seasonal and ethnic
beers departments;
rhow surprising and impulsedriving they are in the food, beverages and nonfood merchandise
they present;
rhow captivating their displays
are;
rhow they assemble meal, snack
and entertainment solutions on
the selling floor to save shoppers
time and help them fulfill missions;
rhow much value they deliver;
rhow caring they are to the community, and more.
That’s quite a holiday checklist for
store operators who know that
the more powerfully their traits
connect with consumers, the
more they can earn extra trips and
bigger sales. Many people are in a
buying mood, willing to upgrade
purchases selectively and help
stores ring up 20 percent to 40
percent of their annual revenue at
holiday time.
This leverage is especially strong
now when shoppers feel the duality of their lives. On one hand, they
want successful homecomings,
dinners and parties, for which
food and settings are organic parts
of memorable family and social
events. They also need to fuel their
day-to-day routine and on-the-go
eating occasions around work and
school obligations that surround
peak holiday meals. They respond
well when they feel a supermarket
is on their side.
Increasingly, supermarkets compete not only on the sales floor
and in conventional circulars, but
also in the expanding world of
social media — Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube
— company websites, e-commerce
platforms, online blogs and chain
Supermarket News spoke with
experts about the opportunities
stores have this quarter to amp up
holiday excitement and satisfy customers in new ways — as well as
some of the challenges forming in
today’s holiday marketplace. The
latter include more branded food
presence and quality perishables
in mass, drug, dollar and c-store
channels; more seamless mixes
of food and nonfood housewares
in large formats such as Target;
sophisticated e-commerce and
online order/delivery/store-pickup
platforms by Walmart, Amazon
and others; and aggressive socialmedia campaigns to showcase
foods and keep consumers
engaged.
The Global Market Development
Center, or GMDC, granted SN
access to portions of two new
white papers it issued for association members on Seasonal Best
Practices For The New World of
Shopping.
“Huge payoffs can come from
blending nonfood seasonal into
the year-round culture — and
executing it well in stores,” states
one of the research documents.
Some case studies shared within
this SN report support this. So
it makes sense that data from a
GMDC 2014 member survey
shows 30 percent of respondents
indicate they get “more C-suite
support for nonfoods seasonal
than a few years ago” — and 67
percent expect more support from
CEOS, COOs, CFOs and CMOs in
2014, 2015 and beyond. The No. 1
reason retail leaders are adopting this approach is “nonfoods
seasonal can add fun to the store,”
according to 50 percent of survey
respondents.
Indeed, fun is a key element for
making stores desirable destinations that encourage people to buy.
It also dovetails well with other
pressure releases supermarkets can
give shoppers. They can engage
them by announcing novel food
ideas, in-store teaching events,
promotions and coupons early via
social media; offer sample foods in
stores; simplify the shopping and
meal preparation; and give shoppers confidence they can serve it
all successfully.
“Supermarkets need to use social
media this holiday season if
they are to compete effectively
with other channels,” urges Phil
Lempert, the consumer trends and
food industry expert known as
The Supermarket Guru. “Especially powerful with Millennials,
Boomers and Hispanics, push
notifications on Twitter should of-
Resources referenced and experts interviewed:
• Phil Lempert, a consumer trends and food industry expert
known as The Supermarket Guru, based in Santa Monica, Calif.
• Neil Stern, senior partner, McMillan Doolittle LLP in Chicago.
• Gary Stibel, founder and chief executive, and Konrad
Gessler, project manager, New England Consulting Group,
Norwalk, Conn.
• Ray Jones, managing director, Dechert-Hampe, Northbrook, Ill.
• Seasonal Best Practices For The New World of Shopping
white papers, courtesy of the Global Market Development
Center, or GMDC
October 20, 2014 SN 47
ADV ERTISEM ENT
SN SPECIAL REPORT
FOR THE HOLIDAYS
Two areas of special
opportunity: deli and beer
Deli can be “a game changer,” Arlene Spiegel, president of Arlene Spiegel & Associates, a
New York City-based hospitality-restaurant-retail consultancy, told SN for an earlier report
on the evolution of the deli department
So why not capitalize on its popularity in the holiday season when interest in creative,
quality meals peaks in many households?
“Supermarkets need to use social
media this holiday season if they
°ųåƉƋŅƉÎŅĵŞåƋåƉåýƉåÎƋĜƴåĬƼƉƵĜƋĘƉ
other channels,”
— Phil Lempert
fer ‘flash sales’ on limited-quantity
holiday food bundles with exotic
twists to create excitement. Offer
nontraditional meats like bison
and duck as well as whole fresh
fish packed along with spices, side
dishes and appetizers — all with
cooking directions right in the
package.”
Indeed, adds Neil Stern, senior
partner of McMillan Doolittle
LLP, “enabling meal planning
online with easy in-store pickup is
a great first step into e-commerce
for many food retailers. For larger
format operators, food variety is a
huge benefit, and they can work to
maximize the advantages of having a more comprehensive offer.”
Food sampling can still be implemented in the fourth quarter, and
it may be a good way to introduce new tastes in prepared and
specialty foods and beverages.
Interactions, a demonstration firm
based in San Diego, samples for
Costco, Giant Eagle, The Fresh
Market and other food stores.
Data it shared with The Atlantic
showed that offering beer samples
in stores this past year led to 71
percent heavier sales. In addition,
sampling increased wine sales
by more than 300 percent, while
packaged cheese was up 100 percent and frozen pizza sales topped
all with 600 percent gains.
Stay true to store
strengths
Retailers using inventive approaches like these to drive food
sales can inspire trips and grow
holiday transaction size while
“avoiding more discounting and a
48 SN October 20, 2014
race to the bottom where Amazon
and Walmart are in a zero dive
and taking everyone with them,”
says Ray Jones, managing director,
Dechert-Hampe.
Holiday is the time to capitalize on strengths and play to why
people shop your stores. “We see
segmentation of retailers today at
a level we haven’t seen before. The
average person shops five different
stores for different reasons, such as
Whole Foods Market for prepared
foods, Wegmans for specialty
foods and quality services, and
Walmart for price,” he adds, noting, “This is becoming common
versus the old days [when] people
bought everything at a one-stop
store like Pathmark.”
Next, factor in that “50 percent
of Americans eat alone, and this
changes the nature of holiday food
buying and selling,” Jones adds.
“Singles celebrate their seasonal
activities alone, unless they participate with other people. It’s a sad
state of affairs. Even empty nesters
can get depressed at holidays. Why
cook dinner if the kids won’t be
there? If we want a nice holiday
meal, we’ll buy it prepared. We’ll
miss the sense of tradition and
accomplishment. Yet, this is the
reason why stores like Wegmans
should emphasize specialty and
prepared. It’s to appeal to upscale
consumers who care about a quality difference.”
Meanwhile, Walmart vies with
dollar stores, extreme-value and
conventional supermarkets for
traffic at the lower- and middletiers of the financial spectrum.
Walmart, for instance, is launching
Deli “will drive retail traffic [and] a better customer experience,” she said. “It can elevate
a brand position in the supermarket genre. It can set the tone for your standards, for your
quality position, for your gourmet aspects. The deli can de-commoditize a supermarket.
At the time, Spiegel analyzed some of the nation’s top supermarket deli operators and
found a consistent 12-percent to 15-percent lift in the average deli transaction once a deli
became more chef-centric and restaurant-like.
In a recent exchange with SN, Don Hall, chief operating officer of M. & E. Manufacturing
Co. Inc., the maker of Deli Buddy Face to Face Slicer Mounting Systems, called the service
deli “the heartbeat of the store. Freshly sliced meats and cheeses are not stuck in [retail’s]
race to the bottom,” which Dechert-Hampe’s Ray Jones cites in reference to low pricing by
Walmart, dollar stores and extreme-value operators.
Deli can remain above that price fray with service speed, suggestive selling and appealing
presentations. These are especially helpful traits in the holiday period, when more people
willingly pay for the quality they seek. Deli Buddy says its engineered work centers reduce
wait time at the
deli counter by 13
percent, shorten
travel time by
25 percent, cut
speed slicing by
8 percent and
reduce customer
walkaways by 69
percent.
Meanwhile,
seasonal and ethnic
beers add authentic
feel to seasonal
get-togethers and
appeal more to
multicultural consumers. “Today’s consumers are more adventurous, exploring new beer
tastes and styles,” says Gwendolyn Boyce, brand director, Dos Equis, Heineken USA. “As a
result, flavor experimentation has become a key factor in driving overall growth in the beer
category. Our Beers of Mexico Variety pack is a proven seller, growing three times faster
than the variety pack segment and faster than any other top 10 variety pack.” She cites
Nielsen data for food, drug, convenience, mass and other channels in the 52 weeks ended
March 29, 2014.
Premium brews provide a quality backdrop for
holiday reconnections with families and friends.
To encourage multiple purchases in this quarter,
Heineken and Heineken Light brands will offer
channel-specific, bilingual, instantly redeemable
coupons and mail-in rebate coupons — where
legal — on items including fresh or frozen turkey,
gift cards and Korbel, the top-selling premium
sparkling wine in the United States. The joint
brand campaign with Korbel extends to its third
year; in 2013, sales in participating BJ’s club
stores rose 6 percent.
Sports are part of the holiday scene, too.
Thanksgiving Day games draw huge audiences,
for example, and the professional football, basketball and hockey seasons will extend into
2015. This means beer drinking and vast tailgate opportunities involving many product
categories will persist throughout the fourth quarter, despite colder temperatures outside.
supermarketnews.com
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SN SPECIAL REPORT
nationally this October a no-fee
checking account service with
Green Dot Bank. It is meant to
appeal to the 17 million Americans without bank accounts, who
spend 9 percent to 10 percent of
their yearly income on financial
services, NBC reports, such as
check-cashing fees and payday
loans.
If it catches on, the retail giant
may recapture shoppers it lost to
dollar stores once SNAP (food
stamp) cutbacks went into effect.
It also may provide welcome
relief to many consumers. Some
of those dollar-store shoppers left
supermarkets behind, too. In the
May-to-July quarter, dollar-store
traffic grew 14 percent versus a
brick-and-mortar decline of 4 percent in the same period, according
to figures from the NPD Group
research firm.
Jones says 60 percent of U.S. shoppers go to dollar stores, both for
low prices and their improving
mix of packaged and perishable
50 SN October 20, 2014
FOR THE HOLIDAYS
foods, beverages, candy and holiday merchandise. “These stores
have graduated into neighborhood
value stores, and they’re a greater
factor in seasonal categories. Supermarkets that aren’t low-priced
operators shouldn’t try to emulate
this part of their character,” he
adds.
Despite headlines about better
employment figures, the economic
recovery hasn’t reached every
class in the United States. Low
prices will likely be a big factor in
who attracts sales from struggling
households — and that includes
formidable online competitors. A
Deloitte forecast for the upcoming
holiday season, which it defines as
November 2014 through January
2015, says sales should grow between 4.0 percent and 4.5 percent.
By comparison, online and mailorder sales are expected to surge
13.5 percent to 14 percent. And
digital interactions are projected
to influence 50 percent, or $345
billion, of retail store sales.
Holiday strategies,
successfully applied
Here are some examples of retailers that successfully meld virtual
and physical-store efforts, and Big
Data, into productive, captivating
shopping experiences:
O Whole Foods Market posted
on Facebook an easy holidaymeal planning, food-buying and
preparation page one week prior
to last Christmas. The heart of the
post was an image of a table richly
endowed with finger foods, jumbo
shrimp, breadsticks, sliced meat,
fresh-cut produce and beverages.
The effect was a highly suggestive,
welcoming and unintimidating
home-entertainment scene. Given
the chain’s social media leadership,
experts anticipate further outreach
of this kind from Whole Foods in
the upcoming fourth quarter 2014
holiday season.
O Raley’s marketers and stylists
elegantly mixed foods with nonfoods in Thanksgiving imagery on
social media, as well as in circulars
and its Something Extra magazine
to seed tasteful and functional
preparation and serving ideas with
shoppers. In addition to tabletop and dinnerware, the chain
photographed items like tongs,
silicone whisks and rubber bowl
scrapers with baking products
for the holidays. This high-end
retailer also used Dunnhumby
data from its loyalty program “to
see how many shopping baskets
with fresh pumpkins from the
produce department included a
pumpkin-carving tool in the 2012
season. It identified those who
bought — because people tend to
replace these — and those who
didn’t, and targeted appropriate emails to each group to encourage
purchases” for Halloween 2013.
O Topco Associates sourced
costumes and built an integrated
marketing platform for member
retailers to sell pre-sized, prepackaged Halloween garb through
their respective websites, without
tying up valuable floor space
or inventory dollars. Operators
notched 550-percent sales gains
supermarketnews.com
ADV ERTISEM ENT
in September-October 2013 over
their August category volume, as
they competed powerfully against
Halloween pop-up shops and
mass. Three chains that used the
online Halloween Costume Super
Store pilot — Hy-Vee, Food City
and Brookshire’s — sold an aggregate 1,300-plus orders for more
than 1,700 costumes and 375 nonHalloween items in the season’s
final two months, reported one of
the GMDC white papers
O Just in time for the Backto-School 2014 season, Meijer
launched its Ready! For You
program chainwide, in which it
assembles components for affordable breakfasts, lunches, dinners
and snacks. Meals range from $12
to $15 for a family of four — a
savings of 15 percent to 20 percent
when ingredients are bundled and
bought together. Meijer boosts the
program’s visibility on Facebook.
The concept creates value mealsolution destinations within their
cavernous 190,000-square-foot
supermarketnews.com
stores that save shoppers time.
Customer demand for this type of
approach will persist throughout
the fourth quarter holiday season,
since most food needs during this
busy period are for routine and
on-the-go eating occasions that
surround peak events, such as
family dinners and parties. Indeed,
says Konrad Gessler, project manager at New England Consulting
Group, “Though holidays are a
time for indulgence, people don’t
want to feel too guilty about their
meal choices. This is a time for private label to get creative and match
trends that holiday shoppers are
expecting to see on shelves.”
Efforts such as these comprise a
complex holiday marketing mosaic for supermarkets. Yet, it is one
that promises bountiful sales and
profits with the proper integrated
approaches that involve numerous food and nonfood categories
across the store.
Among those categories are
beer — with seasonal and ethnic
flavors — and wine, deli/catering/prepared foods, meats, sides,
snacks, bakery, candy, desserts,
frozen items, sauces, produce
and dairy. In addition, there are
such specialty categories as nuts,
cheeses and gift basket items; and
an array of nonfoods such as gift
cards, Halloween costumes, gift
wrap, trim-a-tree, plush, tabletop,
dinnerware, plasticware/party
goods, kitchen tools, batteries, CE,
toys, and catchy impulse items.
From this wide product array,
Gary Stibel, founder and chief executive of the New England Consulting Group, urges supermarkets
to emphasize premium-quality,
high-profile deli, wine, cheese and
specialty products, as well as flowers and home décor. “These can
deliver a competitive edge over
Amazon, Panera” and other competitors on the rise. “Widen that
edge by sourcing your categories
locally and including some fresh,
artisanal flair,” he says.
“You want to be the answer to
the question, ‘Where did you get
that?’” adds NECG’s Gessler.
Merchandising themes
prompt more buying
“Buying for the holiday season
may already be set, but there is
always opportunity to be creative
with displays and promotional
tie-ins as the season approaches,”
says Neil Stern, senior partner,
McMillan Doolittle LLP.
Three key principles apply:
1. Engage shoppers with seasonal
merchandising early in their
shopping pattern. “They still have
time and money at that point, and
their carts aren’t yet full,” says Ray
Jones, managing director, DechertHampe.
Indeed, notes Connie Cheng, executive director-shopper practice,
Nielsen, “Eight in every 10 supermarket shoppers buy an impulse
item from within the store, one in
three purchase impulse categories
from front-of-store, and one in
five baskets contain an impulse
purchase.”
2. Display cohesive themes. “For
years, the trade thought consumers bought salty snacks, candy or
cookies, so stores had separate
aisles,” Jones says. “Then Big Data
showed us the heavy buyer of one
is the heavy buyer of others, so
bring in the Snack Center, add
beverages, and have what you need
for your holiday party. Sell these
items by creating themes that
create experiences. People seek solutions and buy more collectively
than when items are spread out in
different places.”
Stern also is a fan of themes. “So
much can be done with effective
merchandise displays that bring
themes together. An example for
Halloween is pumpkin, which
can be found in everything from
seasonal beers to a variety of
baked goods. Creating a pumpkin
theme can enable cross selling in a
multitude of departments. Retailers can leverage this same idea
October 20, 2014 SN 51
SN SPECIAL REPORT
FOR THE HOLIDAYS
in Thanksgiving and Christmas
holidays.”
One example of the power of cross
merchandising: Heading into last
Halloween, Raley’s paired Pete’s
Coffee with an autumn-colored,
pumpkin-themed mug as an
inexpensive $4.99 gift idea for
co-workers, according to one of
the GMDC Seasonal white papers.
The mug-with-coffee item sold
through nearly 70 percent of its
inventory at full price, during the
two-and-a-half months before it
went on sale the Wednesday before Halloween. Then it continued
to sell through Thanksgiving.
“Target really embraces seasonal foods and nonfoods to
drive broader themes in their
stores,” Stern says. “They develop
dedicated promotional zones and
marketing collateral to be able to
cross sell throughout the store.”
Indeed, the chain’s pre-Thanksgiving circular in 2013 heavily mixed
food with nonfood, in an attempt
to garner high share of the biggest
food-consumption day of the
year after it rolled out additional
P-fresh format stores.
Target used an aggressive “$10 off
when you spend $50 on food or
beverage” coupon to encourage
bigger baskets, and lead shoppers
past visible displays of high-margin coffee brewers, wine coolers,
refrigerators and food processors
priced up to $119.
3. Inject both surprise and continuity to create urgencies to buy.
Stew Leonard’s has done this each
year with limited supplies of goodvalue cashmere sweaters, observes
Stibel, whose offices are located
near a branch of this retailer. “If
one week they sell pullovers, and
with signage alert shoppers that
next week they’ll have zippered
styles, that effectively builds
demand,” he says. Moreover, Stibel
suggests a collectible continuity
program of, say, a series of $60 golf
clubs that can be bought for $25
apiece, with a minimum food purchase of $100 each week. “Maybe
people thought they’d spend only
$80 on a trip, but they step it up,”
he says.
To keep seasonal merchandise
timely and exciting, Stibel says
supermarkets “shouldn’t push
lead times up so far in advance
that they aren’t current anymore.
In a world where being national
and fixed is giving way to being
local and flexible, it disadvan52 SN October 20, 2014
Gift cards will drive
customer traffic into Q1 2015
A pivotal category for fourth quarter, gift cards will once again create an extra season
of redemption for stores in the first quarter of 2015. Gift cards for supermarkets (64
percent), drug stores (60 percent), discounters (58 percent) and gas stations (64 percent)
are redeemed most quickly, typically within four weeks after they are received, states the
U.S. Gift Card Consumer Insights Study by First Data.
tages retailers that don’t have an
open-to-buy closer to the market’s
needs — even to capitalize on fads
that are hot for one season so they
can look au courant. Currency is
timely, especially with online competitors able to turn on a dime.”
Stores can drive
consumer dialogue
through social media
Supermarkets that master social
media quickly — and use it to
push new food experiences and
to simplify food buying and meal
preparation — will own the best
chance to have robust holiday seasons well into the future. But the
clock is ticking. Amazon already
leverages its Prime service, Kindle
Fire and other assets to harness
orders. Walmart has just added
Instagram chief executive and
co-founder Kevin Systrom to its
board of directors.
Whole Foods Market is one example others could follow. Since the
chain sees Millennials “ditching
Facebook and shifting their focus
to Instagram,” it showcases foods
along with personalities, according to according to Lempert. One
example shows a photo of a scoop
of vegan pistachio ice cream made
with Whole Foods’ store brand
of full-fat coconut milk, taken
by @HealthyJulie, a health coach
and plant-based chef. Another
celebrates an in-store pizza maker
named Matt in one of its California stores.
Such spotlights could effectively
build local followings and — when
combined with a holiday prep
“cheat sheet” as Whole Foods
posted to Facebook last December — inspire confidence in more
shoppers to entertain and encourage more purchases in stores and
online. Whole Foods further eases
the process through its Instacart
one-hour delivery/store pickup
partnership in 15 major U.S. cities,
The cards also generate significant net sales. More than one-third of gift-card redeemers
say they changed their purchasing plans because of the gift card. Twenty-five percent
bought an item they hadn’t planned to spend money on, 8 percent bought a costlier version
of an item they planned to buy, and 3 percent bought an item from a store they don’t
normally shop in for that item, First Data adds.
Volumes should remain high, since a follow-up study by First Data cited Christmas as the
No. 2 occasion for giving gift cards in 2012: 53 percent of gift-card givers bought at least
one closed-loop gift card in the holiday season, up from 48 percent a year earlier. The
birthday occasion was No. 1 at 60 percent.
Gift-card buying trends are up for five reasons, according to 2013 consumer research
conducted for First Data by Applied Research & Consulting LLC:
1. Channel shifting is convenient. Though in-person purchases remain most common
— 51 percent of consumers — this figure fell by 10 percentage points from 61 percent in
2012. What rose? Purchases from a specific store’s website, up 15 percentage points to
26 percent. Also, purchases from a website selling gift cards for many different stores,
restaurants or entertainment locations rose 10 percentage points to 21 percent.
2. They prompt store visits. Fifty-nine percent of consumers who received a gift card
say it led them to visit a store more often. Also, 41 percent of consumers who received a
card say it led them to visit a store they would not have gone to otherwise.
3. E-gift cards surge. The percentage of
consumers surveyed who bought e-gift
cards rose sharply to 36 percent in 2013
from 21 percent in 2012. The average
number of e-gift cards purchased nearly
doubled to 4.3 per buyer from 2.2 a year
earlier.
Top 10 holiday gifts in 2013
1. Gift cards
4. Multipacks become more popular.
Nearly one out of four consumers (22
percent) has bought a multipack of gift
cards, mainly for personal gifts.
2. Tech products
5. Mobile apps can store and help
manage gift card information. More
than half of consumers (51 percent) have
interest in this functionality, although only
9 percent have ever used it so far. Apps
can simplify how consumers manage
their cards, and provide gift-card sellers
with increased opportunities to both track
and personalize marketing.
5. Apparel
3. Toys
4. Food
6. Video games
7. Cookware
8. Sporting goods
9. Jewelry
10. Alcoholic beverages
Source: Nielsen, November 4, 2013
The 2013 Christmas season marked the
seventh straight year in which gift cards
were the most requested presents in the
United States. These latest figures available from the National Retail Federation/Prosper
Insights & Analytics showed about eight out of 10 shoppers (80.6 percent) complied. The
NRF Gift Card Spending Survey says holiday shoppers would spend an average of $163.16
on gift cards. That was 4.0 percent above the $156.86 spent in 2012 and the highest
amount in the survey’s 11-year history. The 2014 forecast hadn’t been issued by press time
for this special SN holiday report.
To add further context, CNBC reported that nearly one gift card was bought on average for
every person in the country in 2013 — some 267 million sales transactions valued at more
than $110 billion. Nearly $30 billion worth sold in the fourth quarter holiday season, and
the most requested cards were Walmart, Target, Amazon, Walgreens and Home Depot, the
NRF says.
supermarketnews.com
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healthier holiday meals.”
— Phil Lempert
such as Boston, New York and
Chicago.
Supermarket Guru Lempert
further suggests that supermarkets
“create a how-to online tool that
instructs shoppers in how to create
their own holiday meal album on
Instagram.” Such tactics go just
so far, though. It is vital, he adds,
to “build a relationship based
on value, quality, service and
price. Offer special events such as
culinary demonstrations with a
twist where chefs and registered
dietitians work together to create
fabulous-tasting, unusual and
healthier holiday meals.”
Stern says social media has “almost
endless opportunities” to take
events beyond the actual food and
add fun to shoppers’ relationships
with stores. He suggests costume
and pumpkin-carving contests for
Halloween, as well as competitions
for best-dressed holiday tables
using private-label products. Stern
adds that social media can raise
the emotional connection by tying
in to charities for schools, local
charities, or health issues, such
as the ALS (amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease)
ice bucket challenge that went viral
this year.
Overall, social media and related
web content issued by chains
in the fourth quarter will aim
to connect with shoppers on an
emotional, celebratory level that’s
in step with an upbeat mindset,
and set the stage for in-store merchandising to drive bigger baskets.
They’ll also aim to position stores
as risk-free, go-to destinations for
products and ideas that make entertaining a success in the fourth
quarter, when families gather,
emotions peak, special memories
are made, and people spend on
food and beverage as if they’re
doing better financially than they
actually are. Stores can use social
media to be a bigger part of this
dynamic.
When retailers do this, they
should understand that many consumers wish to project happiness,
forget their troubles for a while,
and serve quality, convenient
foods and beverages to impress
and satisfy loved ones. Stores and
brands still have time now and
continuing through December to
hit the right emotional buttons
with messaging tactics. The aim is
to engage consumers along their
paths to purchase, and while in
stores, to stimulate buying.
Social media is part offense and
part defense since it can “intercept
consumers who might go elsewhere, and merchandise profitable products and services, such
as catering and gifts,” notes the
New England Consulting Group’s
Gessler.
“An effective social-media strategy requires building a seamless
platform that guides users through
multiple channels,” he adds. “The
end goal should be an in-store
purchase so smart marketers will
link their social-media platforms
to either an online ordering system
or to enticing in-store deals.” O