INTERNATIONAL. Some 15% of shoppers in travel retail don’t notice the confectionery category, according to findings from a ground-breaking piece of research by Nestlé International Travel Retail (NITR). And the brand owner is intent on driving awareness of the category in partnership with retailers, as part of its Perfect Store initiative.
NITR has undertaken several major pieces of eye-tracking research at leading airports in association with the world’s largest shopper research agency TNS Magasin. And the findings – alongside Nestlé’s large body of independent research – make compelling reading for retailers interesting in building penetration levels, conversion and average basket sizes in travel retail.
NITR found that in many stores, confectionery is likely to be placed towards the back of the store, with restricted category visibility both from within and outside the store. This has a negative impact on traveller engagement and shopper penetration into the category, the company said.
NITR Customer Marketing Manager Alan Brennan said: “The issue for confectionery is that in many cases it’s at the far end of the shopper journey. In many stores the complexity in getting from one end of the store to another is difficult and time-consuming. This results in shoppers being reluctant to be inconvenienced by going into confectionery, impacting on the level of penetration into the category.
“Visibility is another key issue. The traveller encounters many interruptions to navigation through a typical store, from fixtures to sales assistants, and there’s a lot of competition for their time.”
NITR underlined the requirement to have clear sight lines to the key categories, as well as strong signposting among the “˜beacon’ or “˜hero’ brands within each category segment, to guide passengers towards them.
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NITR is intent on driving awareness of the category in partnership with retailers, as part of its Perfect Store initiative |
Brennan added: “Our proposals around confectionery, following the research, are broadly around positioning the store so that there’s increased penetration between the impulse categories such as confectionery and the main driver categories such as beauty, liquor and tobacco. These, and in particular tobacco, are destination categories so are likely to be the first categories the shopper will seek out during their journey.
“Also, what we found is that if the shopper encounters a till point around a driver category such as beauty, but before they hit the confectionery category, they’re more likely to complete their purchases and leave the store, thereby affecting levels of penetration and conversion in the confectionery category.
“There’s a clear call-out for confectionery to be higher up the hierarchy in terms of store planning, where currently it’s not. And in many cases we would challenge the assumptions about the placement of confectionery in travel retail shops.”
The company will reveal more details of its research, plus offer some compelling solutions around the challenges of penetration, conversion and basket sizes, for its retailer partners at the forthcoming Cannes show.
For customer enquiries contact Alan Brennan, Nestlé International Travel Retail; tel: +41 21 948 29 71; or e-mail: alan.brennan@nestle.com.
