Introduction: What is Shopper Marketing? Shopper Marketing 101

The marketing world is changing and with it, the way we market our products and services. Shoppers may not be as loyal to a brand as they once were and marketers need to find new and innovative ways to entice consumers back. With ever-reducing attention spans of average shoppers while selecting a product to buy, it is important to grab the shopper’s attention in the minimum time possible. This is where shopper marketing comes in. Shopper marketing is a marketing technique focused on increasing sales of merchandise by focusing on the most likely prospects: shoppers themselves.

Different versions of Shopper Marketing

In different organisations and different geographies, the basic concept of Shopper Marketing might be referred to with varying terminologies. Some of those terminologies are Trade Marketing, Customer Marketing, Retail Marketing etc. In it’s essence, the concept whether we call it Shopper Marketing, Customer Marketing, Trade Marketing or Retail Marketing is the same, the ultimate goal is similar. More details on this can be found here.

Goals of Shopper Marketing

The key goal of Shopper Marketing is to win with the shopper at the point of purchase. There are multiple ingredients that play a role towards that outcome. some of them are:

1. Shopper focused packaging
2. Base pricing
3. Promotional pricing
4. Category management/ Ease of finding the product
5. Shopper interactions at the Point of Purchase
6. Trade promotions management
7. Checkout experience
8. Loyalty management

All of the above play an important role irrespective of the channels that a shopper is buying in and equally applies in e-commerce or a physical store. Above is not an exhaustive list but hopefully gives a flavour. Each topic mentioned above can be explored in a great level of detail which when delved into is fascinating.

Difference between Brand Marketing and Shopper Marketing

A key difference between Brand and Shopper Marketing is the focus. While Brand marketing is largely focused on the consumer towards its pursuit of building Brand image/Brand Equity, Shopper Marketing is focused on winning with the shopper at the point of purchase. More details on the difference between a consumer and a shopper can be found on this video here:

Evolution of Shopper Marketing

As a concept, Shopper Marketing is relatively new vs Brand Marketing. It was circa just around 2 decades ago that brands realised the importance of the focus on Shopper Marketing. It gave further validation and support to the concepts such as Category Management, Trade Promotions Management etc. Looking at the future of Shopper Marketing, undoubtedly technology is going to play an increasing role in this evolution. Anything that helps the shopping experience and makes it easy for Shoppers to find, select, buy and checkout the desired product is going to be a winner in Shopper Marketing. Technologies like Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Open Banking, Seamless checkout experience will be some of the key components driving the future of Shopper Marketing.

How do I get my business or brand to strengthen our Shopper Marketing practice?

It starts with the focus on shopper. How well do you know your shopper? Linked to that is, how well do you know the categories within your business as shopper motivations for individual categories could be very different. A good understanding of an individual category and then a strong comprehension of that category’s shopper and his or her motivations is a recipe of success through Shopper Marketing.

Please note: This is a basic introduction to the concept of Shopper Marketing. For further details overall and on individual components please get in touch on info@asbiverse.com. We also regularly share details on our social media channels which you can subscribe to for further and regular information.