Shopper Marketing

Customers are seeking more than a purchase when entering your grocery store. 

Are you offering them an experience? 

While eCommerce platforms are taking the spotlight often brick and mortar stores are not paying attention to what really matters: their customers. 

Back in the 80s, shopper marketing was not a thing, as customers would see shopping as a simple chore. However, nowadays, customers see shopping as a type of entertainment - Retailtainment. 

Just like going to the movies, going to a brick and mortar store is all about the experience. Walking down the long aisles, discovering new products, observing the scent of freshly-baked bread, touching the products. The shopping experience is about more than just purchasing and it needs to combine all senses. 

Some grocery shops tend to forget about the importance of customer experience and they only focus on bringing in products and selling as much as possible. While having your stocks full is essential, caring about your customers and offering them much more than products is a must! 

This is where shopper marketing steps in. Some confuse shopper marketing with trade marketing. However, shopper marketing revolves around the customer, not the product! It is about putting the customer first, understanding his or her needs, and doing as much as possible to meet those demands. 

While customers are turning to their browser for research, 53% of them prefer to head to the brick and mortar shop for the actual purchase. Also, in physical stores, impulse buy increases by 10%!

Yes, you have the advantage, but only if you stand out from the crowd. 

In 2019, in the USA, there were 442,597 brick and mortar stores. 

This means that customers have a lot of options and, if you don’t entertain them, they will take their money elsewhere. 

How can you attract, understand, and offer them the best to your customers?

Shopper activations

Shopper activations are the best tools you have to engage with your customers in real-time and get to know a bit about their behaviour. Some of the most well known types of shopper activations include: 

• demos and samplings 
• music and audio announcements
• event marketing

However, taking into account the restrictions caused by the COVID pandemic, event marketing and samplings are not viable options and they are a bit outdated if you ask us. 

An innovative type of shopper activation is promoting products with Tokinomo. This type of activation campaign will definitely attract customers and leave them talking about you for months! 

By combining sound, motion, and light technologies, Tokinomo offers you the possibility to disrupt customers and offer them an amazing experience! 

Deliver on the brand promise at every touchpoint

The biggest problem with brick and mortar stores is that their marketing strategy is a bit outdated. Most in-store marketing tools (displays, music marketing, sampling) are old-school and don’t attract customers. 

This (and the convenience) is why eCommerce platforms are taking over. However, customers still want to shop in physical stores, but you need to offer them what they already receive when they shop online: accessibility, great user experience, and personalized offers. 

How can you do that?

By delivering at every touchpoint! Tying up the online environment with the physical store. Telling your story from the blog to the in-store campaign. Bringing offers from social media to the shelves. 

Omnichannel retail is the next step your customers are expecting you to take. 

As you know, 80% of customers do their research online, but they end up purchasing in store. When you tie up online with offline, you increase customer satisfaction. 

While in the online environment you have a lot of tools to support your marketing efforts, in-store you only have a few old-school solutions which no longer capture the attention of your shoppers. 

The main reason for which you should switch from old-school in-store marketing solutions is the lack of data. Simple displays can’t offer you important customer data that will help you create personalized offers and improve the overall customer experience. 

With Tokinomo you always know the performance of your shopper activation campaign. 

On the cloud-based platform offered by Tokinomo, you can see some of the most important performance indicators such as:

• Foot traffic
• Activations
• Location
• Status of each device

You can take a look at these indicators whenever you want and you will receive data in real-time! 

Improve experience, increase sales

Offering an amazing experience to your customers doesn’t mean you forget about your revenue. On the contrary, when customers are happy, engaged, and satisfied, they tend to spend more and purchase more products. 

86% of consumers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience.

But how can you offer an amazing experience? 

With various shopper marketing tactics! 

Ambiance

The ambiance is the one that can make it or break it when it comes to shopper marketing. The scent, the music, the perfectly aligned products. All of these offer customers a certain feeling. 

Just think about walking into a grocery store during the Holidays: The smell of freshly baked sweetbread, the cinnamon scent, the jingle you hear all over the store, the employees wearing Santa hats. These simple things can change your whole mood. 

Displays

There are different types of displays that can capture the attention of your customers. One of the most cost-efficient types of POP display is free-standing displays. They offer you the possibility to grab attention towards a certain product without a lot of resources. 

Other types of displays you should try to use are shelf talkers and dump bins (no, they are not actual dump bins), 

Demos and samplings

Demos and samplings are great ways of involving your customers and engaging with them directly. Showing how a product works or simply offering people free samples of your product will make them want to come back for more. Also, who doesn’t love free food? 

But what if we’ve told you that there is another shopper marketing solution that can offer the mood provided by the ambiance, the information provided by demos, and the promotion provided by displays? 

Tokinomo - The shopper marketing solution that helps you increase customer engagement! 

Tokinomo, an in-store marketing robot that combines sound, motion, and light technology, can promote your products while engaging with customers and offering them unforgettable moments. 

Your products will be brought to life by Tokinomo in an instant, and you will be able to see how customers respond. 

Did you know that the average sales lift when using traditional displays is about 20%? 

With Tokinomo you get 10X more! 

An average campaign with Tokinomo results in 200% sales lift! 

All of these without forgetting what really matters: happy, satisfied, and engaged customers. And without rebates, price cuts, discounts, or price promotions- whatever you want to call them that are slowly eroding your profits and brand equity.

Just take a look at how customers react when they see Tokinomo in action: 

Why you need Tokinomo for your shopper marketing strategy

 1. It’s much more engaging than any other type of shopper marketing tactic

Customers stop, stare, laugh, and respond to products that are brought to life by Tokinomo. Simple shelf talkers (that don’t actually talk) won’t engage with your customers, they will distract them for a brief moment and maybe inform them of your latest promotion. Shoppers record Tokinomo campaigns with their mobile phones and post videos on Tiktok, create Insta stories, and Tweet them.

2. It’s the most performing in-store marketing solution 

Unlike other POP displays, Tokinomo increases sales by up to 200% and you won’t even have to lower the price! 

3. It offers real-time data

Displays, music, and other in-store tools can’t offer you enough (if any) insights about your customers and their buying pattern. Tokinomo can and will offer you relevant data, in real-time, on the cloud-based platform. 

4. It helps you innovate 

Customers love new, innovative devices and Tokinomo is one for sure! You will show your shoppers that you keep up with trends and tech. 

5. It encourages word-of-mouth marketing

When something new happens to you what is the first thing that you do? Share it with others!

When customers enter your grocery store and they see that a flour bag is talking with them, you better believe that they will take their phone out and film everything. 

Don’t forget that 92% of people trust their friends and family’s recommendations over any other type of branded advertising. 

Ready to increase customer engagement?