Consumer Shopping Habits for Wellness and Environmentally ...
Consumer Shopping Habits for Wellness and Environmentally ...
Consumer Shopping Habits for Wellness and Environmentally ...
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Critical Issues in H+W Retail<br />
Below we discuss several important general issues that impact H+W retail. Most of them are<br />
discussed in more detail further into this chapter.<br />
Accommodating Growth<br />
As we have mentioned elsewhere, H+W consumers evolve. It‘s very important to keep that evolution<br />
in mind when constructing H+W retail strategies; it‘s not good enough to think about your consumers<br />
<strong>and</strong> their preferences as they exist today. You must be thinking about where they are going, <strong>and</strong><br />
accommodating the ―next steps‖ they will make as they grow. We have seen many consumers<br />
change their channel usage as they have evolved, often moving away from more traditional retail<br />
channels <strong>and</strong> toward specialty channels, in some categories much more so than others. Providing<br />
new options <strong>for</strong> them is critical <strong>for</strong> retention, as is providing a retail space that is arranged intuitively<br />
<strong>for</strong> shopping with H+W in mind. As the old saying goes, ―if you don‘t sell it to them, someone else<br />
will.‖ Retailers should prioritize accommodating consumer growth through store space <strong>and</strong> layout as<br />
well as SKU variety<br />
Shift from Crisis to Lifestyle Emphasis<br />
There is notable contrast between the clinical <strong>and</strong> crisis-oriented version of H+W that we see in<br />
Periphery consumers <strong>and</strong> the more positive, holistic sense of H+W that we see at the Mid-level <strong>and</strong><br />
Core of the H+W World. (See the previous chapter on H+W consumers <strong>for</strong> more detail.) This<br />
contrast impacts how consumers perceive retail spaces. Today many retailers are either providing or<br />
considering providing some level of health services in-store, <strong>and</strong> that may hold some appeal to<br />
consumers in the Periphery. However, at the same time, overtly clinical services may be distinctly<br />
unappealing to more evolved H+W consumers in some retail contexts. In an obvious sense, no one<br />
wants ―flu shots by the salad greens,‖ but often this contrast comes out in more subtle ways, <strong>and</strong><br />
may be dealt with through various manipulations of space <strong>and</strong> store content.<br />
Leveraging Food<br />
While this study <strong>and</strong> report is largely concerned with non-food products (general merch<strong>and</strong>ise, OTC,<br />
et cetera), there is no denying the importance of food to the wellness consumer. It is typically the first<br />
focus of the budding H+W consumer, <strong>and</strong> remains a key focus as that consumer evolves to more<br />
intensive involvement with H+W. Not surprisingly, in interviewing consumers <strong>for</strong> this project, a key<br />
challenge was to keep them from talking too much about food, <strong>and</strong> get them to concentrate on other<br />
categories of H+W goods.<br />
The business implications here are simple. Tactics such as the following typically meet with success<br />
in elevating H+W impressions in retail space:<br />
Leveraging ―fresh.‖ Step one in any H+W campaign should be to make sure that fresh<br />
departments are of extremely high quality <strong>and</strong> show a very high st<strong>and</strong>ard of care (e.g. avoid<br />
produce bins that look picked-through).<br />
In the absence of fresh departments, leveraging high quality packaged foods <strong>and</strong>/or<br />
beverages. (Highly visible locations are very helpful e.g. place healthy fruit smoothie drinks<br />
in a cooler near the front of the store rather than in an obscure case at the back of the<br />
store.)<br />
Reducing the visibility of ―junk food‖ wherever possible/practical.<br />
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