Blogs
August 22, 2024
In Blogs
The UK retail environment was never simple to navigate – but the pandemic, Brexit, and the cost-of-living crisis have left it more volatile than ever. Sales trajectories seem impossible to predict, peaking one month and plummeting the next. Raw materials and supply chain costs have rocketed. Consumers are splurging, yet switching brands and retailers to save money.
However, even now, Health & Wellness brand owners can find opportunities to excel. This blog post outlines 10 essential skills you need to thrive in a fast-changing retail environment.
Many retailers have undergone organisational transformations and staff restructures, resulting in smaller teams and fewer resources to meet ambitious targets. Under intense pressure, they’re demanding more from their suppliers.
To meet these heightening expectations, brand owners should approach negotiations from the retailer’s perspective. Understanding your retail partners enables you to develop tailored strategies.
Ensure your commercial team is primed to build rapport with retailers through active listening, addressing their concerns, and suggesting ways to achieve shared goals. It’s important to sell your brand to the retailer, but this should be done in a way that appeals to their objectives, communicating how stocking your brand will enable them to achieve their business ambitions.
Analysing and interpreting data from multiple sources empowers you to identify trends, understand consumer behaviour, and make informed decisions.
You should build a deep knowledge of your retailers’ shopper bases and how they make their purchase decisions. Through segmentation, you can determine target shopper groups based on their attitudes and behaviour. This is key to developing successful shopper activation strategies.
Moreover, through effective data interpretation, you will be able to demonstrate your brand’s appeal to shoppers and position yourself as a knowledgeable, proactive partner.
“Analysing and interpreting data from multiple sources empowers you to identify trends, understand consumer behaviour, and make informed decisions.”Retailers value suppliers who can convert data into actionable insights. You should make data-based recommendations on category layout and product placement initiatives that address current challenges and capitalise on opportunities.
For instance, seasonal spending habits might inspire you to move cold and flu products to the front of the store in the winter to enhance accessibility for shoppers. Likewise, your data may reveal that shoppers often buy sunscreen and insect repellent at the same time, in which case you could position these products closer together, boosting sales and basket sizes.
From unexpected splurging in an economic crisis to switching brands for better value, recent shifts in consumer spending habits¹ have perplexed brand owners and retailers alike.
Comprehensive shopper research will help you anticipate these changes. Understanding shopper missions—why and how they shop — enables you to develop targeted channel strategies. This could involve tailored product offerings, strategic placement, and customised marketing efforts that resonate with different shopper segments, enhancing engagement, improving the shopper experience, and promoting brand loyalty.
Diomed Developments, for example, successfully targeted different shopper segments by securing three healthcare sitings for their footcare product, Bazuka, in Boots. Through strategic placement, pricing, and promotion strategies, Diomed Developments improved sales, brand awareness, and category share.
“Understanding shopper missions—why and how they shop — enables you to develop targeted channel strategies.”To win over retailers, brand owners need to master category-based selling. This involves crafting and implementing a category vision showcasing how your brand will enhance the category. Use your data-based insights to communicate what role your brand will play in the category and the unmet shopper need or desire it addresses.
A clear category vision helps you align your strategies with retailer objectives and consumer demands. Remember to integrate sustainability initiatives, as these have become integral to business success. 84% of global consumers say poor environmental practices will alienate them from a brand².
L’Oréal’s “Beauty for All” strategy leverages consumer insights to create tailored products for different beauty categories. By addressing diverse beauty needs and preferences, L’Oréal enhances each category’s value. Their sustainability initiatives, like reducing carbon emissions and using eco-friendly packaging, align with consumer values and differentiate their brand, ensuring strong retailer partnerships and meeting evolving market demands.
Creating compelling selling stories is crucial for gaining retailer support. These narratives should weave together insights into how your brand solves specific problems for the retailers’ shoppers, meets desires, or both.
You might highlight the benefits of your products’ innovative formulae or ingredients, supported by research or consumer testimonials. When launching its hayfever product, Allevia, into Boots, Sanofi drew attention to the unique ingredient, fexofenadine, which had only just switched from a Prescription-Only to a General Sales Licence ingredient.
Likewise, Diomed Developments has built a powerful presence for Doublebase in the OTC skincare category by communicating its scientific, dual-action formula for flare relief. Well-crafted narratives like this drive sales by making your product stand out in a crowded market, engaging retailers and consumers on a deeper level.
Retailers favour suppliers who take a proactive approach to shopper activation and marketing. You should strategise how to promote your brand in-store using retail media to drive shopper awareness and sales, attract new category users, and unlock category growth.
In a cost-of-living crisis, it can be tempting to rely on discounts and price promotions – but this is not sustainable. Instead, build an understanding of what motivates the retailer’s shoppers and craft campaigns that deliver value in their eyes.
This can be anything from sampling and interactive displays to educational content, in-store digital screens, and POS material. Your campaigns should appeal to shoppers’ emotions and mitigate the negative impact of price increases by emphasising value and benefits over cost, helping to build brand loyalty while driving sales and enhancing the shopper experience.
Major UK retailers are reducing their product ranges and the frequency of range reviews to streamline their operations. This calls for brand owners to adapt their strategies or risk losing shelf space.
Stay attuned to your retail partners’ fixture changes and assess your product range accordingly. Evaluate underperforming products and strategise how to improve them. Is a new formula required? Or perhaps redesigning their packaging will be enough to transform their trajectory? Meanwhile, make the most of your top-performing products through multi-buy and loyalty schemes.
You should also strategise for fewer range reviews, planning for years in advance instead of months. Develop three-year collaborative plans with your retail partners to show vigilance and commitment to your common objectives. Include in your plan future consumer trends to capitalise on, potential challenges to overcome, and new product launches to prepare for. This strategic alignment can help you form a long-lasting supplier-retailer partnership.
“Develop three-year collaborative plans with your retail partners to show vigilance and commitment to your common objectives.”A recent RSM report has revealed an increase in consumers purchasing private-label products over branded items³. In response, many UK retailers are allocating more shelf space to own-brand products and reducing the space for branded items.
Innovation is crucial for brands to stay strong on the shelf. By thinking creatively, you can develop unique concepts that address unmet consumer needs and set your brand apart, making it indispensable to the retailer.
Probiotic brand Bio-Kult regularly introduces new formulations targeting specific health concerns. Importantly, it capitalises on its innovative new product development through eye-catching educational in-store displays, brochures, and online content to promote brand awareness and customer loyalty.
Responsiveness and adaptability are imperative in a fluctuating market. Agility in business strategies empowers companies to swiftly address emerging challenges and opportunities. You should be able to rethink traditional approaches, reallocate resources, and find solutions to maintain a steady supply chain.
Procter & Gamble (P&G) has enhanced forecasting accuracy and diversified sourcing strategies to improve supply chain resilience. They have adjusted inventory levels to quickly respond to demand shifts and strengthened collaboration with retailers for better inventory management and steady product supply amid global disruptions.
Mastering these ten skills equips Health & Wellness brand owners with the tools necessary to navigate and thrive in the changing retail environment. By leveraging deep retailer understanding, creative thinking, strategic planning, and data-driven insights, brand owners can overcome contemporary challenges and achieve sustained growth.
If you would like support in building these skills among your team, please get in touch. Our bespoke training courses help brand teams effectively adapt to the changing market. From customer-centric approaches to data interpretation and category-focused strategies, Ceuta Group’s Commercial Capability and Consultancy Team, Bridgethorne, can provide you with valuable insights and pragmatic techniques for retail success.
To find out more about how to unlock the true potential of your brand, get in touch
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