Travel Retail Success: The 5 Fundamentals To Achieve in-Store Excellence
With ShelfTrak, we're enabling brands to master the fundamentals of Travel Retail success by providing the data and intelligence needed to excel with in-store execution.
The Industry professionals who prioritise these fundamentals excel in retail execution and achieve remarkable results.
ShelfTrak empowers brand owners to focus on these key areas by offering a comprehensive overview of the essential metrics. This enables brand owners to measure, track, refine, and excel in their in-store execution, helping them thrive in the competitive travel retail landscape.
Scroll Down To Learn About The 5 Retail Fundamentals
The Retail Fundamentals
1.Product Placement And Visibility:
Effective product placement and visibility are vital in travel retail, where customers often make quick purchasing decisions.
Ease Of Shop:
Creating a category zone that is easy to shop is essential. Focussing on strategic locations, particularly high-traffic areas and implementing relevant product adjacencies, play a crucial role in attracting attention and driving impulse buys. When products are easy to find and navigate, shoppers are more likely to engage and make purchases.
Share of Space:
Optimising the allocation of category space is essential for enhancing product visibility and facilitating consumer engagement. A balanced share of shelf space not only increases the likelihood of product recognition but also reinforces brand presence within the category. By strategically positioning high-visibility items in prominent locations, brands can drive higher sales performance, as consumers are naturally attracted to well-displayed products that capture attention and encourage impulse purchases.
Complimentary Adjacencies:
Placing complementary products near each other within the categories will encourage cross-selling, new product trial and will enhance the overall shopping experience.
Optimal Shelf Position:
Effective fixture-display planning is essential.
high-demand and well-known items should be positioned at eye level to maximise exposure and accessibility.
Fixture displays should focus on placing key products within easy reach to enhance convenience and increase the likelihood of selection and purchase.
HOW DOES SHELFTRAK HELP?
ShelfTrak provides insight into product placement and visibility. By analysing data on shelf positioning, brand owners can optimise their layouts, ensuring that products are strategically placed for maximum impact.
This data-driven approach helps enhance visibility and drive sales in the competitive travel retail environment.
2.Minimising Out Of Stocks:
Out-of-stock situations in travel retail pose significant challenges for brands and retailers alike, leading to lost sales opportunities and diminished customer satisfaction.
Closing Missed Sales Opportunities:
In travel retail shoppers often seek specific items, and an empty shelf can lead to frustration and missed sales. Travellers typically have limited time, and when they can’t find the products they want, they may resort to purchasing alternatives or leaving the store entirely.
Overcrowded Displays:
Poorly organised displays may obscure popular products, making it difficult for shoppers to locate them amidst a clutter of items. This confusion can lead to frustration, prompting shoppers to abandon their search as it fosters a perception of unavailability, even if the stock is present. This lack of visibility can diminish the overall shopping experience, reduce impulse purchases, and ultimately result in lost sales opportunities.
Limited Shelf Space:
Travel retail environments often have limited space for product displays. This scarcity forces brands to compete for visibility, and high-demand items may not receive adequate space for optimal stock levels. As a result, popular items may sell out quickly, leading to frustrating stockouts for customers. Strategic space allocation is essential to ensure that high-demand products remain accessible to shoppers.
Inefficient Inventory Management:
Poor practices may include inadequate stock replenishment processes, where items are not restocked quickly enough to meet customer demand. Insufficient monitoring of inventory levels can lead to discrepancies between actual stock and recorded inventory, making it difficult to identify when products are running low.
HOW DOES SHELFTRAK HELP?
ShelfTrak enables brand owners to identify potential out-of-stock situations by bringing data and store images to the desk top.
Brands who analyse this intelligence and take action see improved inventory management. By using ShelfTrak to inform decision and inspire action, brands can ensure their products are always on the shelves, enhancing customer satisfaction.
3.Effective Pricing Strategy:
A well-defined pricing strategy is essential for attracting customers and maintaining competitiveness. Travellers typically seek value, and transparent pricing that aligns with their expectations can significantly influence their purchasing decisions.
Competitive Pricing:
Brands must regularly analyse competitor pricing to ensure their offerings remain attractive. Understanding market trends and pricing dynamics allows brands to adjust their prices effectively, ensuring they are not only competitive but also appealing to budget-conscious travellers.
Perceived Value:
It’s crucial for pricing to reflect the quality of the products. Travellers are often willing to pay a premium for items that convey luxury or exclusivity, but prices must still be justified by the product’s features and benefits. Brands should communicate the value proposition clearly to reinforce this perception.
Promotional Pricing:
It is essential that the mechanics of promotions are clear and easily understood by shoppers from diverse nationalities. Clear communication helps avoid confusion and builds trust. Providing multilingual signage and marketing materials can further enhance understanding and accessibility, ensuring that all customers feel informed and empowered.
Transparancy And Communication:
Clear communication of pricing ensures shoppers feel informed and valued, enhancing their overall shopping experience.
By implementing a comprehensive pricing strategy that balances competitiveness, perceived value and promotional opportunities, brands can effectively engage customers and enhance their performance in the market.
HOW DOES SHELFTRAK HELP?
ShelfTrak provides detailed insights into all shelf prices and ongoing promotions, enabling brands to monitor price changes and promotional mechanics across the competitive landscape.
With access to comprehensive data, brands can conduct thorough competitor analysis, identifying pricing trends and promotional tactics employed by competitors.
4.Promotional Excellence:
Effective promotional execution is crucial for driving foot traffic and boosting sales. Engaging promotions serve to entice customers and encourage them to make purchases while driving brand visibility and fostering loyalty.
Strategic Placement:
Promotional displays must be displayed in high-traffic areas to maximise visibility and attract attention. Gondola ends, proximity to checkout counters, and at key junctions within the category can effectively draw shoppers to promotional items. The placement should encourage impulse buying by making it easy for customers to spot and access the promoted products.
Exclusive Travel Offers:
Brands should enhance the shopping experience by creating an engaging atmosphere around the promotional activity. This could include sampling opportunities, interactive displays, or themed activations that align with the promotion. Such experiences not only captivate shoppers but also create memorable moments that encourage them to return.
In Store Experience:
It is essential that the mechanics of promotions are clear and easily understood by shoppers from diverse nationalities. Clear communication helps avoid confusion and builds trust. Providing multilingual signage and marketing materials can further enhance understanding and accessibility, ensuring that all customers feel informed and empowered.
Clear Communication:
It’s essential to communicate promotional offers clearly and effectively. Use eye-catching signage, digital displays, and multilingual materials to ensure that all travellers, regardless of nationality, can easily understand the details of the promotion. Transparency about the terms and conditions—such as eligibility and duration—will help build trust and prevent confusion.
HOW DOES SHELFTRAK HELP?
ShelfTrak tracks in-store promotions, providing an insights into the common mechanics used across category segments and all suppliers.
By analysing data on promotional effectiveness, brand owners can refine their strategies and implement more successful campaigns in the future, ensuring that promotions resonate with shoppers, maximising their impact on sales.
5.Trade Agreement Compliance:
Ensuring retailer partners adhere to the terms of agreements can prevent conflicts and foster trust, while compliance ensures that brand owners get the most out of their partnerships.
Define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):
Brands should establish clear KPIs that align with the terms of the trade agreements. These may include metrics such as pricing adherence, the effectiveness of promotional executions, and the visibility of product placements. By defining specific, measurable KPIs, brands can ensure that they have a concrete framework for evaluating compliance and performance.
Regular Reporting And Feedback:
Brands should create a structured reporting schedule to share performance metrics with retail partners. Regular reports should outline compliance levels and provide insights into areas where improvements can be made. This fosters transparency and allows retailers to understand their performance relative to expectations.
Address Discrepancies Quickly:
When discrepancies arise, it is crucial brands address them promptly and constructively. By discussing any issues directly with retail partners and providing actionable recommendations, brands can collaborate on solutions that improve compliance.
Benchmark Against Industry Standards:
Brands should regularly compare their retail partners’ performance against industry benchmarks. This can help identify best practices and highlight areas where specific retailers may be underperforming. By understanding how their performance stacks up against the competition, brands can provide targeted support and guidance to their retail partners, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and compliance.
HOW DOES SHELFTRAK HELP?
ShelfTrak monitors and tracks product placement, pricing, and promotional activities so reality versus agreement can be monitored.
This transparency allows brand owners to quickly identify any discrepancies and address them proactively. By ensuring compliance, brands can strengthen their relationships with retailers and optimise their in-store presence.
Conclusion
Fact-Based Retailer Discussions:
Engaging in fact-based discussions with retail partners is essential for fostering collaboration and achieving mutual success.
By relying on data and insights derived from the five retail fundamentals—effective product placement, minimising out-of-stocks, strategic pricing, impactful promotional execution, and ensuring trade agreement compliance—brands can build stronger relationships and address challenges proactively.
This data-driven approach enables tailored strategies that benefit both parties, enhancing communication and ensuring that decisions are grounded in reality. Ultimately, this paves the way for more effective and profitable partnerships.
Competitive Advantage:
Focusing on these fundamentals while utilising ShelfTrak provides brands with a clear competitive advantage.
With access to detailed shelf data and insights, brands can make informed decisions that optimise their retail execution. This allows for precise adjustments to display standards, pricing strategies, promotional activities, and inventory management, ensuring that high-demand products remain available and visible.
By leveraging ShelfTrak’s capabilities, brands not only enhance their operational efficiency but also position themselves ahead of competitors.
