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This Is Why Price Mark Packs Are Making a Major Impact

You don’t need a fancy statistic to know that shoppers are looking to save money in these times of financial uncertainty. Whilst we’re not technically in a recession, it certainly feels like it to many people across the nation, as household budgets are squeezed by rising utility, fuel, housing and grocery costs.

Matt Stanton - Head of Insight

4 Minutes

/ 22nd February 2023
  • Sales & Distribution
  • Category Insight

With shoppers’ budgets under pressure, it’s important to help them save money. Shoppers visit stores they trust, so they need to know you have the right products on shelf, and they need to know they’re paying a fair price. What classes as ‘fair’ will depend on what type of store you operate. Shoppers will not expect a convenience store to be as cheap as a discounter, for example. But they will make a judgement and there are ways you can help give them confidence.

In convenience stores, one of the easiest ways to show value is by stocking price-mark packs (PMPs). One in three shoppers say that a price-marked pack reassures them they’re not being overcharged. 22% of shoppers believe that a PMP is cheaper than the standard price, and more than a quarter (27%) believe it means the product is on promotion (even when it is actually the standard price).1 At a time when shoppers are so intent on saving up the pennies, you can see how these insights are especially important when choosing your product range.

PMPs are available across a range of categories and are particularly prevalent in the household, health and beauty categories. This is important because the price points in some of these categories are higher than average – take laundry detergents and stain removers, for example. Showing that these higher-ticket products are being sold at the recommended retail price will give shoppers added confidence in picking them up. More than a third (35%) of household, health and beauty shoppers say they are more likely to buy a product if it is offered as a PMP.1

PMPs can make store operations easier as well. The price of a PMP is really obvious to the shopper, so they don’t need to ask. Many convenience retailers use price tickets on the shelf edge, but these can sometimes become obscured or fall off, and many retailers do not have the facility to print price tickets out, and instead rely on sticking price labels on the product. PMPs are easy – they don’t need an extra price label, and there’s no confusion for the shopper.

Just how important are Price Mark Packs?
Did you know
22 %
believe that products with a PMP are cheaper?
As well as
27 %
believing PMP products are on promotion?
And that over a third of shoppers
35 %
are more likely to buy products with a PMP?

There is, of course, one key objection that retailers (and wholesalers) sometimes turn to when rejecting PMPs in favour of standard packs. PMPs can limit a retailer’s ability to charge a higher price for the product. HOWEVER, whilst there are certain, specific circumstances where charging a higher price could be an appropriate tactic, charging the correct price is more important in most cases to build shopper loyalty and price confidence. Shoppers are making fewer trips and are looking to pick up as much as possible in one place, and they are planning their trips in advance. Whilst charging a higher price may drive a short-term margin gain with shoppers on distress missions, it will have a negative impact on shopper loyalty. With shoppers looking to save money, they will plan to shop in a store where they have confidence in the product prices and will avoid stores looking to capitalise on distress missions by charging higher prices. Distress top-up missions account for just one in ten total convenience shopping trips, whereas planned top-up missions make up one-third of the total and have a much higher basket spend1, so these are the missions that most convenience retailers should be prioritising.

So… are PMPs right for your store? Convenience retailers currently stocking non-PMPs could trial switching to a PMP and monitor the sales uplift in comparison to how the rest of the category performs (e.g. compare the sales uplift on a laundry product with sales performance in the total laundry category). I would not recommend stocking a PMP and non-PMP version of the same product on shelf at the same time unless you are switching from one SKU to the other and it is unavoidable, and in this case, the products should always be sold at the same price.

I’ll leave you with one final statistic, in case you’re not already convinced. 43% of shoppers say they are more likely to shop in a Convenience store that sells price-marked packs.1 If you have PMPs on shelf, shoppers are more likely to choose your store. So if you want more customers… stock more PMPs!

 

Source:

1: Lumina Intelligence Convenience Tracking Programme