Retail channel lines continue to blur and fresh food is a major ingredient. Fresh options have been showing up increasingly in the convenience channel, drug channel and food service, especially quick service restaurants.
Todd Hale, Sr. Vice President, Consumer & Shopper Insights, Nielsen, Sherry Frey, Vice President, Account Services, Nielsen Perishables Group, and Bill Roth, Consumer Insights Director, the Kroger Company discussed various opportunities and challenges at Nielsen’s Consumer 360 event.
Todd Hale commented, “Fresh drives store traffic and baskets – in fact, baskets with fresh are 1.5 to 2.1+ times larger than without. Fresh can create a point of differentiation and grocery retailers with the highest shopper equity get credit from consumers for fresh and have higher loyalty.”
Highlighting how Nielsen provides provide a complete view of how consumers buy across the store, Sherry Frey examined evolving meal preparation behaviors and how those themes play out in fresh and center store. She also shared her thoughts on solutions for the future, offering concrete examples of how to take learning from this session and put them in action.
Bill Roth demonstrated how Kroger is investing in and leveraging fresh to drive total store sales, driving shopper engagement from a total store perspective.
The presenters stressed the importance of focusing on total store success: Winning in fresh isn’t the whole picture. With 70% of grocery store profits tied to center store, there is a sizable opportunity to build bigger total store baskets and reduce channel leakage. Hale said, “Fresh is important, but we really need to think total store to win. And that starts with a need to understand and respond to evolving behaviors around meal preparation.” The presenters’ examples of manufacturer and retailer innovation demonstrated how store and product-level activities and programs are happening today, so that retailers and manufacturers can identify opportunities for how you can enhance your position with the evolving behaviors.”