Retail trends in food: Convenience stores, c-store concepts

Retailtrends from all over the world. This item appears monthly in the German magazine for food professionals Rundschau für den Lebensmittelhandel and Jos de Vries The Retail Company is responsable for the articles where the latest trends on the different topics are presented.

A big number of consumers is looking for saving time and convenience at the hour of shopping, preparing the meals and consuming the meals. Convenience is the key word. This articles therefor explains some of the latest trends in convenience store concepts in the European food sector.

Tesco (United Kingdom)
"Food to Go" is now not only symbol for prepacked meals if you ask today´s consumer. The British supermarket chain Tesco, famous for their convenience store concept, does not only offer prepacked meals and ready-to-eat sandwiches, but also prepares these fresh-made meals in the supermarkets. That the clients can see, smell and taste the freshness of the meals gave a good impulse in sales of the convenience articles.

IKI (Lithuania)

A topic what generates a lot of discussion in the food retail sector is the theme of self scanning in supermarkets. In Lithuania it is very common to self scan your products in the supermarkets. In the supermarkets of IKI (In English: Hello), one of the most important players in Lithuania with over 200 supermarkets, the clients can choose between self scanning or paying at the traditional check-out. The self-scanning they can do with the customer loyalty card or credit card. Here you can see that mayority of the consumers already use the option of the self-scanning service.

Holiday Classic (Russia)
"Ready to eat" with this concept clientes are being seduced by the Russian supermarket chain Holiday Classic. Fresh presented ingredients are being prepared instore. For the chain the change into convenience en fresh concept resulted in an increase of customers with over 30%.

Jumbo (The Netherlands)
Cheap, friendly personell, good assortment, fresh products, fash shopping and money-back warantee, these are some of the 7 warantees of the Dutch supermarket chain Jumbo. If not all the check-outs are occupied, the fourth client in waiting row can obtain the value of their shopping for free. All these warantees resulted into success, new stores are being developed and for the 5th year in a row the supermarket chain has been choosen “best supermarket chain of The Netherlands”.



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Technical developments and their role in helping create the store brand's distinctive profile.

Previous articles:

- Developing the store formula: The right combination of creativity and process based development

- The Discovery Phase: Discovery: Evolution or revolution? That is the question

- Translate trends into a successful strategy for the new store formula

- The new store formula: The concept phase, the actual design phase

- The store lay-out

- Store design and the 10 golden rules of store design

Technical Innovation
Stagnation means decline.
Technical developments and their role in helping create the store brand's distinctive profile.
Of all the tools in the toolbox used to create a store formula, (technological) innovation is the
one least benefited from. This is mainly caused by ignorance – what is innovation and what can I achieve with it? – and the resultant fear of innovation.
What does innovation mean? Briefly, innovation means keeping up to date (or keeping ahead of) technical developments in the field of retailing. Innovation can be introduced front stage or behind the scenes. Behind the scenes, the latest technical developments – with regard to logistics, to take one instance – can save a great deal of time and money.
In the past few years, some innovations have won ground in the store. For instance, self-scanning devices have appeared in supermarkets, both saving employees’ time and adding a service for the consumer. This kind of innovation is also very important for the store brand. If you wish to be thought of as a trendsetter or at any rate want to be up-to-date in the market, you can ill afford to fall behind your competitors; rather, you would like to be at the forefront. Use of the latest gadgets in the shop tells the customer in a very direct way that your store is modern. Lagging behind in this respect can be fatal; consumers very quickly get used to the new possibilities offered by innovation and will want to see them in your store. At one store you can see yourself on a television screen wearing the shoe of your choice, at another the computer is used to fit the right sports shoe.

Convenience, service and professionalism are general characteristics of good technical innovations that can be used in the store. Modern consumers are no longer interested in TV screens simply showing a music channel. However if the screen displays explanations of recipes
combined with a special offer, this would be called added value and the consumer would certainly appreciate it. Supermarkets are currently working on a self-thinking trolley. When it passes special offers or special product ranges, the consumer's attention will be drawn to the product by the trolley's computer and he or she may be tempted to buy the product. This may be a lucrative way of advertising for the supplier, but it remains to be seen whether the consumer really needs it…

So, in order to fit technical innovations into the sales process in the best possible way, one will have to think carefully each time what value is added. Ten guidelines for using technical innovations in the most appropriate way are listed below:

Rule 1
Before adopting any technical innovation, ask: ‘What does it add’? What real added value do I offer my customers? What do I want to achieve with the innovation?

Rule 2
What are the management costs? Not only is the initial investment in a technical innovation important, but so also are the costs of long-term use.

Rule 3
How long will my innovation remain new? Will what is new today not be outdated tomorrow? Technological developments simply happen very fast.

Rule 4
Capitalise on your edge. Tell your customers about the developments at your store. This will give you the image of being an ‘innovator’.

Rule 5
Keep it simple. Consumers have no patience for learning how to use complicated systems.

Rule 6
Consider the styling. Besides technical quality as regards content, a technological development also requires the right ‘emotional’ design to support the concept.

Rule 7
Bricks and clicks. Where possible, try to link the technical developments in the shop to your website.

Rule 8
Know who your users are. Where possible, try to get your customers to identify themselves. These customer ¡groups are often trendsetters who are also up for other modern marketing communication applications.

Rule 9
Collaborate. Technical innovation is an outstanding example of an area where new possibilities and solutions can be created together with manufacturers.

Rule 10
Try to make the results measurable and evaluate them on a regular basis. Dare to make decisions when something is not working. Daring to make mistakes is also part of innovation.

This chapter is part of the book "the store manual" of Jos de Vries The Retail Company The Store Manual (2005) Jos de Vries The Retail Company has been working his way through the marvels of the Retail world since twenty years. Since the Retail branch on its way to professionalism is developing and also scholarly interest was growing, there still wasn’t a manual.Jos de Vries The Retail Company has made a definite change in bringing out “The Store Manual” a must for every store. You can order this manual for € 35,00 (excl. Postage and Package)

M.vanderkooij@josdevries.eu
www.josdevries.eu