Ten Ways to Innovate in Center Store

Posted on March 30, 2009. Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Center Store, Consumer Insights, CPG, Design, Grocery, Innovation, Market Research, Merchandising, Retail |

Today, grocery retailers are all buzzing about Center Store innovation. And it’s about time! While retailers continue to adjust the scope, product offerings, design, and merchandising of perimeter sections such as the prepared foods and bakery, Center Store has remained unchanged for decades. The result is that stores lack a holistic, unified approach: the perimeter becomes the dynamic, engaging place where customers like to linger, interacting with a wide variety of products and people, and the Center Store is where they boomerang in and out of selected aisles, ignoring entire product categories.

What kinds of changes to Center Store will attract today’s shopper, build loyalty, and increase cart size? We have had the opportunity to work with several retailers and CPG companies as they embark on developing a more consumer-centric Center Store. The following list stems from ethnographic observations and interactions with shoppers at several grocery stores as we explored their current shopping behavior at each touchpoint in the Center Store shopping process – from wayfinding to purchase consideration and choice-making.

Provide inspiration In the traditional grocery store model, consumers have perceived Center Store as cold, confining and uninviting. In the future, Center Store needs to break down the barriers, be more fun, and inspire consumers by offering the possibility of “discoveries.” To date, a handful of retailers have tackled this through the use of storytelling in their merchandising strategies, to create the “treasure hunt” that will invite shoppers to find something new or unique.

Simplify choice The shear number of products and brands in Center Store is overwhelming to shoppers, making it difficult to navigate categories and select products. Retailers need to streamline SKUs, adjusting the size of product categories according to consumers’ desired level of involvement (think more breakfast cereals, fewer paper products) as well as the local demographic and lifestyle composition. Activating private label brands is another key strategy retailers can employ toward simplification, “taking back” the store by organizing product categories around the best of what store brands can offer.

Offer clear pricing and promotion strategies Consumers are highly price-sensitive (especially in the current economic climate) and seek savings in all categories, especially in the most impulsive ones such as salty snacks and carbonated beverages. CPGs are in a race with retailer private label brands to communicate strong, consistent value messaging across the aisles. The ones who eliminate confusion for shoppers will win their dollars.

Less is more Center Store typically suffers from too much clutter. Over-signage and extra fixtures leave consumers “pinballing” around the aisle, trying desperately to locate a particular category, brand or product. With the advent of digital signage and advertising, the effect is blinding. Consider how you can strip away the excess visuals and utilize other non-verbal wayfinding cues. Some of the most innovative solutions toward “decluttering” involve creating key display focal areas for customers—giving them a chance to zero in on the product or group of products that best meet their needs.

Go multi-sensory As opposed to the freshness of the food that consumers can see, touch, and smell in the perimeter of the store, Center Store is all behind closed, sterile packages. The new and improved Center Store will take the best practices of the perimeter, enabling people to experience the products, perhaps through new packaging solutions, sampling, signature sounds or scents. Coffee, beverages, and pharmacy are some of the categories in which multi-sensory can play a tremendous role in enhancing customers’ interaction with products.

Present meal solutions Currently, Center Store is not consistently merchandised to reflect the ways in which consumers use products. Products act simply as ingredients that are meaningless apart from each other, but when grouped together, they tell the story of creating a wonderful meal. Consumers are energized by using in-store kiosks as well as mobile device applications such as Kraft’s iFood Assistant; these solutions will continue to compete with in-aisle advertising and promotions for efficient meal planning.

“Zone” the store Center Store can often be disorganized and inefficient. Consumers may need to zig-zag several times across aisles to collect items. In order to create a consumer-centric, intuitive layout, retailers should rethink adjacencies and barriers according to consumers and their needs, zoning categories together where appropriate. Some obvious interactions are salty snacks and beverages or produce in all its forms – fresh, frozen and canned.

Build a sense of community Consumers acknowledge the interaction with employees and other shoppers in the perimeter sections and crave the same thing in the Center Store. (And we know for a fact that when they speak with others, they will buy more.) Consider how to support such interactions by sharing new products, creating affinity groups, and suggesting meal ideas. This will ultimately position the retailer as an educator and expert and build customer loyalty.

Acknowledge “lifestyle” Many Center Store aisles, including Pet and Baby, do not adequately reflect the dynamics of consumers’ lifestyles, especially as these pertain to how specific products help them care for the ones they love. Merchandising in these higher-involvement categories requires showcasing products to create affinity with consumers in every part of their daily lives (for example, “bathtime with baby”). Another means of creating affinity with customers and leveraging expertise in these highly emotional categories is by hosting customer workshops and partnering with charitable organizations and medical professionals (such as the ASPCA or a well-known pediatrician).

Emphasize healthy living Consumers often avoid Center of Store, heeding the health warning that their doctors offer: “shop the perimeter, never the aisles.” In order to encourage people to seriously shop in Center Store, retailers need to demonstrate in every product category that they care for the health and well-being of their shoppers. Think beyond informational signage to examine what spokesperson, what brand, what product, and ultimately what message can drive the health message in every aisle.

Importantly, as Center Store innovations are evaluated, retailers should acknowledge that customers don’t think of Center Store as “broken”. People are not seeking radical change to their grocery shopping trips. Therefore, all measures toward innovation need to be balanced against the way in which customers have been trained to shop the store. In other words, test all strategies with customers to ensure that they perceive them as an improvement to the current shopping experience.

Beyond customer acceptance, prospective innovations for Center Store eventually need to also go through an operational feasibility filter. As we have undergone this innovation journey with retailers and CPG companies, we are acutely aware that internal teams need to be aligned for cross-functional merchandising and promotions or these innovations are doomed from the start. But those who are willing to overcome internal roadblocks will enhance the Center Store shopping experience for customers and generate business success.

Rachel Magni is an experienced brand strategist, working with retailers and restaurants as Director of Consumer Insights at WD Partners. Learn more about Rachel at www.wdpartners.com or www.linkedin.com/in/RachelMagni .