Personalization drives loyalty & growth

In the competitive and fast-evolving FMCG industry, understanding shopper behavior and preferences is crucial for success. By offering a tailored shopping experience, grocery retailers and brands can enhance shopper satisfaction, drive loyalty, and gain a competitive edge in the market. Personalization not only improves the omnichannel shopping experience but also builds long-term relationships with shoppers, leading to sustained business growth and success. 

However, incomplete product content is a significant barrier to achieving this level of personalization. When product information is lacking, it stops the ability of retailers and brands to tailor shopping journeys to individual shopper preferences, leading to missed opportunities and frustrated shoppers. 

Today’s grocery shoppers have diverse and evolving needs influenced by numerous factors. Some of the key aspects influencing todays shoppers include: 

• Value for money: Shoppers are searching for the best value products, seeking promotions, discounts and loyalty programs that offer savings across the products they desire. 
• Convenience: Shoppers prioritize simple, easy and quick ways to shop, whether that be in store or online, shoppers expect flexible and personalized options to save them time on their shopping trip.
• Health and wellness: A growing number of shoppers are seeking healthy and organic foods, and products that are suitable to their specific dietary requirements including coeliac, vegan.  
• Sustainability: Shoppers are increasingly concerned with the environmental impact of their choices and are seeking products and brands that use sustainable practices. 

Personalization in grocery shopping is essential for addressing the varied and specific needs of today’s shoppers. It enhances convenience, relevance, engagement, and trust while catering to health, budget, and ethical preferences. By leveraging data and technology to create personalized shopping experiences, grocery retailers and brands cannot only meet the expectations of modern shoppers but also build long-term loyalty and drive business growth. 

Personalization relies on detailed, accurate and optimized product information. Information such as extended attribution, product descriptions, images, specifications, ingredients, usage instructions, and shopper reviews are crucial for: 

• Search and filter functionality: By leveraging extended attribution, retailers can enhance search accuracy, helping shoppers find the products that meet their specific needs quickly and efficiently.  
• Personalized recommendations: Utilizing shopper purchasing decision information and data on similar products, retailers can suggest products based on shopper preferences and past behaviors.  
• Shopper engagement: Leveraging enhanced product content including optimized product content, images and videos, engages shoppers and helps them make informed purchasing decisions.  

How to address incomplete product content 

Attributes are key pieces of information about the product. There are numerous attributes associated with a product, that can range anywhere from a product title and description to recyclability and sustainability. Specific product attributes can also vary based on several factors such as product category, unit quantity, market relevance etc. 

Did you know that up to 84% of brands fail to claim at least one of the top three most searched attributes that their products qualify for (Source: Label Insight). Meaning shoppers today are not able to discover the products suitable for them online. 

Whilst there are no specific attributes required for online, it is critical to remember that the more attributes applied that meet the target audience/segment, the higher chance of conversion. For example, for a shopper who is focused on healthy living, having nutritional attributes information available is highly relevant for what would drive their purchasing decision.  

Good data powers personalization

This is where the notion of ‘quality’ of information comes into play. Most retailers have similar attributes showing on the product description pages such as product title, product description, product imagery to name a few. However, the way that a brand talks about their product and the images provided, should be tailored to ensure that the information is relevant and pertinent to both the demographic and segment of your target shopper.  

It is also important to note that brands should utilize retailer specific content for each retailer they are ranged as, as the demographics for shoppers differ and it is critical that the brands provide relevant product content for the specific demographic to thrive across each retailer. Whilst the vast majority of retailers take the same attributes there will be some differences, and the best way to ensure that product content is as complete as possible across a variety of retailers is to have as many attributes as possible completed. 

Alongside this, brands need to compare their product content to their competitors to ensure they are competing effectively on the digital shelf. Comparing product content health scores will help identify the strengths and weaknesses in the product content and call out any gaps that need to be filled to outperform competitor products.  

Research conducted by NIQ Brandbank shows that the more complete product content is, the higher search ranking on the digital shelf, making products more discoverable and improving the conversion rate.  

A personalized shopper experience is what today’s shoppers expect and without complete product content it is not possible. If brands and retailers continue to utilize incomplete product content they will no longer be able to compete effectively in such a competitive and fast paced industry. Product content is the driver to all shopper experiences. Without accurate and optimized product content the shopper is dissatisfied and will lose trust in the brand. As shopper needs continue to evolve, the role product content plays in revolutionizing grocery shopping and enabling personalized shopping experiences is more important that ever. It is one step closer to building a successful grocery omnichannel strategy.