Activating Shoppers at the Point of Decision

The best place to induce shoppers to make impulse purchases is while they in stores, at the shelf considering their product purchases.

In 2006 Ascension consultants led the development of a strategic system to adorn BI-LO retail stores in Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina with hundreds of high quality, shelf-level suggestive selling messages.

The program featured thematic imagery and supporting copy linked to key seasonal periods. The messaging system focused on strategic combinations of high margin fresh and private label items – those that could provide the greatest financial impact to host retailers.

Printed suggestive sell messages were developed in a wide array of sizes and placed throughout the store to create a seasonally timed shelf level shopper communication program. The program was designed to strategically test the ability of impulse shelf-level shopper communication to drive incremental item purchases.

The average grocery shopper buys 12-13 items per visit to the store. Thus inducing shoppers to buy even one incremental item per basket could result in double digital top line retail sales growth.

Empirical big data analysis of test vs. control store results revealed that the program was highly successful at:

• Captivating shoppers
• Enhancing the retail shopping experience
• Driving measurable retail sales lift

The shopper messaging system is an example of Ascension’s ability to apply strategic principals to help generate measurable business impact!