Supermarkets and the convenience sector
2 April 2014There is no doubt that supermarkets are investing heavily in the convenience sector, and that they’re already seeing the results. In fact Sainsbury’s announced in January that it had opened its 594th convenience store, overtaking the number of supermarkets it runs. Consumers are also changing their shopping habits, favouring local stores that are quicker to get to and faster to get around rather than the traditional big weekly shop
When it comes to the packaging industry, convenience stores throw up some specific challenges that aren't faced by big supermarkets. For example, the back of store is much smaller, and deliveries are often less frequent. There are fewer product lines - often under 1,000, compared to up to 80,000 in a large store - and there are often just one or two facings of a product, rather than three or four.
A lot of display packaging that's currently used is just not right for convenience stores because it's too big. There isn't the space for large format POS displays to work but displays and promotions still need to happen and can deliver strong results for brands. Suppliers are currently designing and producing displays at half or quarter size to meet this challenge.
Shoppers tend to visit convenience stores several times a week, and on foot, leading them to purchase fewer, individual items rather than multipacks which, when combined with the lack of space, means that trading units also need to change. Instead of 24 primary pack in a container, convenience stores are looking for six or 12.
Something on offer to solve this problem is designing RRP (retail ready packs) for large supermarkets that can also be split into smaller trading units for convenience stores. The design, colour and branding all work just as effectively if the pack is full size or split.
Supermarket-run convenience stores are here to stay, and they are bringing about a significant change in shopper habits. It's essential that the packaging industry responds to this, with tailored answers to the 'c-store' challenge.
