Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Organize Organic Item Assortment/Promotion

Retailers carrying organic product lines often find that store sales increase, but much of it from purchases of items not carrying an organic label. The presence of socially conscious products makes it more likely the customer will purchase products that do not embody social consciousness. It’s as if having chosen the store is enough to satisfy the values.
     Even when this sort of thing doesn’t occur within the same shopping trip, it can occur over subsequent shopping trips. That is, if someone purchases a socially conscious item on this trip, they become more likely to purchase next time an item which shows little attention to social consciousness.
     Featuring “organic” is to your advantage even with items beyond foods. A few years ago, Target rolled out what they called green-friendly home and fashion products. But since organic products can command a higher profit margin than nonorganic alternatives, aim to sell those rather than use them mainly as a bait for other purchases.
     Researchers at Özyeğin University in Turkey and State University of New York-Buffalo assessed sales elasticities for 56 product categories of organic and nonorganic items. They were asking what happens when product assortments are increased or decreased and when the amount of price discounts is made large or small.
     What the researchers found leads me to suggest you attend especially closely to item assortment and price promotions with organic items. The elasticities are high, meaning consumers are themselves paying close attention: Increase the item assortment 20% with organic and nonorganic items, and the increase in sales will be greater for the organic set. Discount prices on organic items 20% one week and on the nonorganic parallels 20% a few weeks later; you’re likely to find that the sales boost is greater for the organic than for the nonorganic items.
      Maybe shoppers who think they should buy organic items, but find reasons not to, are drawn to reconsider when there’s more shelf space devoted to organics because of increased product assortment. Maybe they find it harder to justify bypassing the organic items when there are price discounts. Beyond this, though, the Özyeğin/SUNY researchers also found the increased sensitivity to assortment and promotions among consumers placing a top importance on buying organic.

Click below for more: 
Attract with Social Consciousness 
Donut Omit the Indulgent

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