Originally Published by
The Hershey Company.
By Doug Straton, Chief Digital Commerce Officer and Phil Stanley, Chief Sales Officer
In-store impulse purchases have long been a key revenue driver for retailers and manufacturers alike. A
recent study shows that the average American consumer spends about $5,400 a year on unplanned purchases, and 3 in 4 Americans buy candy at the register before checkout. Additionally, 68 percent of U.S. consumers still say their primary location for making a spontaneous buy is in a physical store. But as consumers continue to migrate their shopping to digital channels, retailers are grappling with how to retain these crucial sales and what the unplanned experience should look like online.
Sales of our instant consumable products found in checkout lanes across the country account for about one third of our business. While important, we know single-serve buys are just one piece of the candy shopping puzzle. For our category, seasons and occasions as well as take-home package types are also very important drivers of our business. If addressing last-minute purchases is our sole focus, then we’re leaving sales on the table.
It’s the same case when retailers and manufacturers think about in-store shopping separately from online. Consumers see it as one seamless ecosystem and they move at lightning speed between mobile, online and in-store shopping. In fact, look around the next time you’re in a store. Most people are price-checking or reading product reviews on their phones. Talk about lines blurring and the importance of eye-catching and thumb-stopping content.
To achieve this goal, a smart digital strategy is more important than ever; it’s the equivalent of moving your product from the dusty bottom shelf to eye level in-store. Think about it if the product can’t be easily searched or discovered, it won’t be found and will remain unsold.
To demonstrate the power of an effective digital strategy, let’s first look at the traditional path of a shopper’s last-minute buying habits in-store. Say you’re waiting in the checkout line at the grocery store and you spot a chocolate bar. You think about it and, ultimately, grab one (you deserve a little reward after this shopping trip, right).
The following week, you don’t have time to go to the store, so you order your groceries online for home delivery. At this point, retailers have an opportunity to give you the chance to change the impulse purchase made the week prior in-store into a planned purchase online.
There are many tactical solutions to make this happen from listing the item as a suggested purchase to offering a discount or free sample at checkout. These reminders at the virtual checkout counter, give shoppers the opportunity to add candy to their list. Put simply, this is how to change an off-list, last-minute purchase into one that’s always on the list.
Human nature dictates that once something is on your list, you’re not likely to take it off out of convenience. In fact, 80% of all online orders are sourced from ‘favorites’ lists.
Now, instead of buying a single
Hershey’s chocolate bar at the checkout counter, a box of Hershey’s chocolate bars will come with your grocery delivery. You and your family will have a sweet snack in your pantry to share or make s’mores with as you go about your week.
This dedicated digital strategy benefits our shoppers in buying the snacks they want whenever and wherever they are and helps drives growth for our customers. By creating one retail ecosystem, we’re helping our customers stay ahead of the evolving retail landscape and remain at the top of the consumer’s list.
