Why Merchandising Teams Need to Consider Context Online as Much as In-Store
Historically, most grocery purchases occurred in-store. But that also applied to a host of other purchasing decisions, like new product discovery, finding inspiration for meals and searching for sales and deals.
Now, today’s increasingly omnichannel shoppers are seamlessly moving through digital and physical environments well before they make their grocery purchases during their pre-shop. As such, grocery merchandising teams need to also understand the new omnichannel ecosystem and partner with their counterparts in digital retail or with the CPG brands to influence the consumer in this pre-shop and planning phase. This way, merchandising teams can ensure that they’re holistically considering how to align digital and in-store tactics and reach shoppers who are moving their purchasing decisions to digital on- and offsite environments.
Leverage cooking habits
As the pandemic created an entirely new set of home cooks, Chicory’s network of +5.4 million recipes reflects increased cooking and baking habits. Merchandising teams should consider that purchasing decisions don’t just occur onsite, and that many shoppers make their shopping decisions and search for inspiration offsite. In fact, a Chicory survey found that over half (52.43%) of consumers use digital recipes and other online tools once a week or more often to plan for in-store trips.
Expand to offsite environments and complement onsite merchandising to reach new shoppers who may not have even considered a particular retailer.
For instance, utilize digital recipes, a resource that more home cooks are using to find their cooking inspiration, to influence consumers while they’re making their purchasing decisions. Consumers are making pretzel snacks at home in the last quarter at a rate that’s 8% higher compared to the same time period in 2020, according to data from our network. So, advertising on the digital recipes that consumers are using to make these salty treats can drive consumers to an onsite page for snack pretzels, bridging the gap between inspiration and purchase, while also utilizing a classic merchandising tactic.
Utilize onsite search to cross-merchandise
Just as in-store merchandisers pair peelers with produce and marinades with meat to cross-category merchandise, retailers need to ramp up their digital product and engineering efforts to enable suggestions that do that same in search and product description pages. Here at Chicory, we believe that context is the key to get shoppers to make a grocery purchase, and our data shows that CTR for shoppable ads increases as the context is more relevant, and more full basket solutions are offered (think, chicken paired with charcoal, BBQ sauce and lighter fluid during the summer).
So, cross-merchandising should be mirrored onsite using the search tool. As shoppers search for, say, tomatoes, product description pages can also suggest basil and mozzarella. This gives the shopper a more fully fledged meal solution and provides the context that they need to actually make a purchase. It also enables product discovery, by providing inspiration for a meal and suggesting items that shoppers may not have considered before.
Foster impulse buying online
Every shopper knows the temptation of the small displays near the checkout aisle that group individual candy bars, packs of gum and magazines. Creating an opportunity for impulse purchases online for grocery can be as simple as recreating that same environment digitally.
Without adding another page from the digital shopping cart to checkout, merchandisers can work with the digital team to add suggestion feeds to digital shopping cart pages near the checkout button. Those feeds can suggest the exact same things that are in the in-store display, or can be more personalized and suggest last minute purchases based on what’s in the cart.
For example, a shopper who has a cake mix, frosting, candles, balloons and cake pans in their cart may receive suggestions for sprinkles, piping bags and tips and food coloring to complete their cake-themed purchase.
Align product groupings offsite with tentpole events
Contextual targeting is often used by retailers as part of offsite advertising strategy in partnership with a brand. But it can also be an effective tactic to influence shoppers offsite in relevant contexts when they’re searching for occasion-based solutions. Plus, shoppers are more inclined to make a purchase at the promoted store versus a competitor when an ad offers a full-basket solution that helps them with a particular occasion or meal planning.
Merchandising teams can work with their marketing teams to target consumers who are searching for occasion-based items such as, say, festive July 4th party and recipe ideas, with creatives advertising everything they need to celebrate the holiday. The ad can lead users to a landing page with recipe and decor ideas, along with product suggestions for a full party, or more effectively, add all items needed for a celebration to the cart, such as streamers, a cake, prepackaged deli appetizers and grilling essentials. Contextualizing a purchase as a full-basket solution within the relevant context means that merchandisers can more effectively drive sales of a full range of products that align with a specific promotional occasion, similar to what they do in-store and onsite.
This new grocery ecosystem means that, although merchandisers don’t manage digital ad placements or strategies, they need to account for changing shopper behaviors as they map out promotional activities. While digital grocery merchandising may not be as simple as copying traditional in-store tactics, there are several creative ways to merchandise digitally both onsite and offsite in order to reach shoppers when they’re making their purchasing decisions, and also offer useful suggestions to encourage additional purchases.
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Nick Minnick is the Director of Strategic Partnerships here at Chicory, the contextual commerce advertising platform.
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