4. Another Way to Examine the Shelf Management;
Explore the Behavior in front of the Shelf
（February 4, 2011）
Continuing from the previous column about the shopper behavior in front of the Hair Care category, we now would like to expand the target area to the whole shelf. Last time the observations were limited to a short range of movement (a 3 * 15 matrix of 45 products with which to interact) in order to identify product position by shopper’s contact and item selection.
(Please see my last column here.)
This time the observation covers the whole shelf in Hair-Care category in a store. Specifically shown as below;
- The central area (the area previously examined)
- The top compartment and the bottom compartment are those above and below the central area, which have each 7 compartments (5 faces in each compartment)
- The left compartment and the right compartment are those compartments located left and right to the central area.
The result is as follows;
- The highest contact rate is the central area.
- As well as the short-range contact rate, more shoppers touch products side to side rather than up and down.
- More customers contacted lower right compartment compared with the previous verification.
- Contact rate of the horizontally placed products is about as six times higher than in the vertical.
→ Short range : 5.87 times / Wide range: 6.66 times
Figure. 1 Contact rate in each compartment
Figure. 2 Detailed Contact Rate in the Central Area
Next, let’s take a look at the route, in what order shoppers contact the product. The figure below shows the route of a particular shopper.
Figure. 3 Order of How a Shopper Contact Products
As seen in the figure 3, this shopper contacted with many products, but many of the contacts were from side to side in the same row, having made only one contact to the lower right.
Conclusion
- Shoppers contact products that are located horizontally.
- Short range and wide range in contact rate did not show a big difference.
- There were less contacts in the right above/below products from the first contact.
In the previous examination, right side of the contact rate tends to be higher than other position., but those in the wide range there was not a significant difference seen in either the left or the right compartments. The contact rate in the vicinity (means 2 faces left or right from the contacted product in the short-range examination and 45 faces compartments centering on the target products in the wide-range) is about 60%.
Considering the above result, it seems shoppers are likely to pay attention to products that are located horizontally, especially right side when they compare nearby products but left side when they contact products in wide range. On the other hand, it is not a preferable position to place right above or below the popular products.
This has done in Hair-Care category, so it might bring totally different result if we examine this rule in other categories in DrgS or SM. But apparently, this is a new qualitative method to trace shopper behavior, unlike to traditional method such as mystery shopper or group interview. Continuing this method and following our Shopper Data, we believe, it will shed light on discovering new spectacle in the shopper marketing.
Any inquiries about this column, please feel free to contact us.
