7 Supermarkets to visit in 2012

When interviewed for my book So You Want To Be Customer-Centric, Georges-Edouard Dias of L'Oréal pointed out the opportunity to truly improve the customer experience in many traditional supermarkets.  In his view:  “Many stores today aren't really user-friendly.  You need to drive there and park far away from the entrance.  When you get inside, it's hard to find the information you're looking for.  There are too many products to get a clear picture, and the staff aren't always much help either.  Not to mention that even if you know exactly which product you want to buy, it may not be in stock.”

Having just restocked our fridge at the local hypermarket, I can only agree that grocery shopping can seem like a stressful, inefficient and occasionally depressing endeavour.  

While it was tempting to write a post on "fixing the supermarket experience", I decided to take a positive view and instead look for supermarkets which are making the experience of grocery shopping painless, or even enjoyable.  As much of the industry is still stuck in its orthodoxies, the examples weren't always easy to find.  But the seven below definitely stood out enough to make my 11 year old son conclude: "if these people can do this, why can't supermarkets do it everywhere".  I think he's got a point, so if you're working in the supermarket trade, you may want to visit a few of the stores below for inspiration.

MPREIS in Tirol (Austria)
If you thought supermarkets were square boxes which lacked any form of architectural imagination, MPreis in Austria is clearly intent on proving you wrong.  Launched 90 years ago, this Tirolian supermarket chain is known for making sure their supermarkets are architectural beauties beyond compare in their industry.

EATALY in New York
Part deli, part experience, part restaurant and with a massive beer garden on the roof, Eataly is somewhat hard to define.  But what is pretty clear is that this high end Italian megastore is pretty on the ball when it comes to creating a food shopping experience to remember.  Not to mention the art of securing the margin that goes with it.   The video below says it all.



H-E-B in San Antonio, Texas
In early 2010, this Texas supermarket decided to group all male skincare in a Men's Zone.  This was driven by the insight that most guys, especially in Texas, don't really feel at ease looking for their products alongside female hygiene and hair removal products.  The results were phenomenal with a year-on-year sales increase of 11% on a range of 534 personal care items.  


ChronoDrive/ChronoVillage, France
We have all seen the "shop online and pick up in store" programmes which most advanced supermarkets have implemented.  But France's Auchan has taken matters a step further by designing a Chronodrive service station where you can  collect your groceries in 5 minutes or less.  The current format upgrade, Chronovillage even helps you secure a freshly baked baguette, a good bottle of wine or a rose to remind your spouse how much you love her (hey, it's France).  These extras are provided by complementary specialty stores which surround the pick-up zone. Apparently the format is hitting it off, as Auchan has announced a quite aggressive roll-out plan.

Kaiser's Berlin, Germany
The Futurelab blog already covered the store in 2009, but Kaiser's in Berlin is still the most senior friendly supermarket that I've ever seen.  From magnifying glasses to read prices to modified trolleys, every aspect of this food retailer has been adapted to the needs of those who aren't as young as the product managers that typically market to them.  As the world's population keeps aging, this is one retailer everyone needs to watch.



Tesco Homeplus, Korea
Sure, I know it's shown up in every retail presentation of 2011, but Tesco out-innovated everyone with its subway station smartphone stores.  If you would have missed it, or would like to indulge once more, do check out the video.




The People's Supermarket in London, UK
Last one in the row is a supermarket that doesn't use special furniture, architecture or technology to create a unique experience, but manages to do so nonetheless.  Owned by it's customers, who are also regularly asked to lend a hand in the restocking the aisles or servicing customers, The People's Supermarket focuses on local, authentic products at fair prices.  




Did I miss anyone who's equally remarkable?
This was my little list of remarkable supermarkets.  Do you know of a chain that should also be on the list, then please use the comment section below to add to this post. I'm always happy to learn about new customer experience innovators.

Two Presentations on Shopper Marketing

Last week I was in Bucharest to present at the Shopper Marketing Conference which was organized by our great friends at Evensys.  For the perusal of the people who participated in this event, or who ever else is interested, I have uploaded PDF’s of the presentations for downloading here.

The Margin Challenge of Being Green

When listening to the case of TNT Post's sustainability efforts at Marktplein 2.0, I could only conclude that no good deed goes unpunished. And as it's a situation which many companies going "green" may be facing soon, it's one to start thinking about today.

At Marktplein, Peter Van Minderhout, Group Director of Corporate Sustainability at TNT, highlighted some of the highly impressive work his organisation does in the area of relief work (and I mean the "real thing" like Darfur, tsunami aid, etc). However, he also indicated a dilemma the company faced for the future.

In short, they had done a reprise of a stakeholder review across a large number of NGO's, customers, etc. to check what these people thought of the companies sustainability efforts (and where they should focus next). And much to their surprise, the message was had evolved from a few years ago. Among their customers, emphasis had shifted from "compliance with regulation", "child labour" and "fair working conditions" in 2004 to "eliminate CO2" today (only preceded by employee working conditions).

Or put more bluntly (my words): "We like what you're doing for the poor and your workers, yet frankly won't buy a penny more for it. Still, if you reduce your CO2 emissions, we would probably increase our orders (and if you don't we'll go elsewhere)."

This shift in itself poses some interesting dilemmas. Still, the real challenge of then responding to this call for CO2-reduction, came when the purchasing departments of these same customers got their hands on the CO2-reduction plans the company was putting in place. Their logic was simple: "as TNT was being more efficient, this should translate itself into lower price. So could we have a discount please?".

This while at the same time some of TNT's highest margin products are exactly the ones that are least efficient in energy (e.g. express freight by airplane). And shifting customers to more efficient means of transportation (e.g. express by train) is much lower margin.

In other words, the company now finds itself in a situation that to comply with the CO2 reduction request from their customers, they need to start cutting heavily into their margin. So in a way - and kudos to TNT for discussing this so openly - they are "damned if they do, damned if they don't".

So I wonder. Will this story repeat itself for EVERYONE who's currently selling to Tesco today, or in 2008 to Casino? Will it be so that customers will first pressure their vendors to "go green" and then send in their purchasing departments to ask discounts for more efficiency? And when this cat gets out of the bag, will these vendors actually resist going green as the business case for doing so erodes?

I don't have an opinion, yet it's definitely a space to watch. Meanwhile I hope the world will show ever more companies like TNT, who first do what is right and then try and figure out a way to also make this profitable for everyone (and even have the conversation in the open). Keep it up Peter!

Illegal Downloaders in UK Spend Upto 4.5 Times More on Legal Downloads

In stead of prosecuting illegal downloaders, music companies in fact should be celebrating them as their dearest customers.  That, at least, is the conclusion of a British research by market watcher The Leading Question.

According to their findings, active P2P users spend almost 4.5 times more on buying legal music than their non-P2P counterparts (£5.52 vs. £1.27 per month).  Only 4% of users being interested in "having more than 1000 songs to take a long".  Together with some similar researches in the US, it would appear that the myth of artist-robbing, CD-ripping and malicious P2P pirates is finally crumbling (at last).

There is one snag though.  P2P users do buy their music online (via Napster, iTunes, ...) and don't bother with CD's any more.  This of course, still doesn't fit the record label business model.

Interesting times.

for the article: go to The Register

The Consumer of 2020

How will we be shopping fifteen years from now?  While it's always hard to make an exact prediction, Bain & Company have just made a good effort in trying to map the consumer for 2020.

In short, their bet is that we'll all become cross-over consumers.  Regardless of which end of the - widening - income gap we reside, we will finally stop to fit into tidy consumer segments.

The person shopping at Wall-Mart or Aldi will also want clones of high-end designer products (like Wall-Mart is planning offer).  The consumer who loves Prada and Armani will stock up his refrigerator at Wall-Mart. People who eat fastfood every day for lack of time will spend hours gourmet cooking on Saturday. Companies will therefore have to clearly choose one business model or the other: high-end experiences or discount value. Any route which is stuck in the middle is recipe for disaster.  The only thought I have when reading all this is whether it is really the consumer that is changing, or that we're just - finally - starting to understand him for what he is ... just like us.