Nielsen’s latest Global Retail-Growth Strategies survey has revealed that product quality and availability are the most influential factors when it comes to where Irish shoppers choose to buy groceries.
Nielsen’s survey on shopping habits polled more than 30,000 consumers across 61 countries, and found that for 60% of Irish shoppers, the products they want regularly being in stock is “highly influential” in choosing which retailer to buy from.
This was just narrowly ahead of having high quality fresh produce (59%), with offering good value for money (58%) as the next most influential factor.
Interestingly, the results found that four of the 10 most influential factors relate to product range and quality, whilst three related to price and convenience.
Nielsen Ireland’s commercial director, Matt Clark, said that the survey findings are good news for grocery retailers, as it challenges them to "take a broader view about the offering and not be so focused on price".
"Irish consumers are more interested in the right ranges of quality products than pure low prices," he explained.
“Value for money is more important than a low price, which is why the discounters do well as they offer good quality in addition to just low prices. These factors are coming through in the grocery price inflation we’ve seen since the start of 2016.”
He also highlighted the importance of convenience, noting, "Consumers are more likely to choose a grocery store by how short or fast the checkout lines are (36%) rather than whether they can use a loyalty card there (29%)."
Finally, Nielsen discovered that when it comes to which in-store services are most attractive to shoppers, 37% named banking services as the most enticing and widely used, followed by petrol stations and pharmacy services (both 34%) and prepared food services (32%).
© 2016 - Checkout Magazine by Jenny Whelan
