NAM News – Whos minding the shopper?

Most of us accept that, given the extent of their loyalty data insight compared with that of the supplier, major retailers now ‘own’ the C&T shopper, says Brian Moore

The old deathbed story raises an interesting dilemma in C&T retailing today: an elderly shopkeeper on his deathbed asks for his wife and then for each of his six children. When the last one replies “I’m here”, the old guy demands “then who’s minding the shop?”. In other words, if the key retail stakeholders are all pre-occupied with survival and continuity of the business, then who’s minding the shopper?

Despite the fact that a retailer’s knowledge is mainly derived from analysis of shopping behaviour, especially for C&T brands, their increasing share of consumption via own label growth also means that they have potential access to the shopper’s consumers and their consumption behaviour. They are thus capable of leveraging shopper insight in also taking ownership of the consumer in turn leading to a desire to participate in the consumption process via more own label.