Don't assume you have a captive audience

“We like to think that once someone’s in our store we have a captive audience, but the opposite is true. Customers have many other options just a few aisles away,” said Jack Li, relevance strategist for Datassential, when discussing why consumers choose the deli/bakery over commercial aisles, during the Consumer Shopping Dynamics educational session at Dairy-Deli-Bake.

Although half of consumers decide to visit the deli/bakery once they’re already in the store, it’s not enough to simply be unavoidable, Li said. Customers need to be mentally and emotionally engaged in order to increase the frequency of their visits. He presented a three-stage model for achieving this:

1. Attract–make sure customers feel compelled to stop by, whether through an eye-catching display, well-staffed counter or attention-grabbing signage.
2. Engage–offer cues or sensory information to keep the customer interested, such as appealing samples or signs indicating how fresh the product is.
3. Convert–make buying product seamless and easy by staffing enough to prevent overcrowding at the counter/checkout or offering a self-checkout option.

While the bakery has gained ground on the commercial aisle in terms of convenience, the aisle still wins out on price and shelf life. Thus, Li noted, the bakery needs to focus on the areas where it can compete best with the center aisle by staffing like a restaurant, addressing consumer concerns about high prices in the bakery with value and promotion offerings, offering a variety of product to indicate quality and care, sampling that engages and educates the customer, and closing the gap between deli and bakery.