We’ve all heard it: Shoppers are at the center of commerce. They are the ones that are informed, make choices about What, Where, When, How and Why to shop and will change if they encounter “friction.”

With that, it seems like a strong case can be made about the importance of establishing a leadership role for Shopper Insights. Earning that leadership role comes from showcasing the value of Shopper Insights to drive optimal strategies for growth.

Everyone wants to be able to show the value of their function, especially since it impacts so much: budgets, headcount and more. While it’s unlikely to find an actual ROI value for Shopper Insights, this doesn’t mean Shopper Insights doesn’t have value — it absolutely does. It’s just tough to boil it down to a concrete number.

When it comes down to it, a Shopper Insights function brings value through a deep understanding of the unique viewpoint of the Shopper. You can multiply the impact of those insights if they are leveraged by other teams to create even more complete understanding of the shopper and the marketplace. This understanding ultimately creates opportunities for growth for the category, the retailer and the brand.

The impact of Shopper Insights is critical both internally and externally. The collaboration between Shopper Insights and other internal functions, but especially Category Management and Consumer Insights, is essential. The more you know, the more effective you will be. Developing external relationships between the manufacturer and retailer bring incredible synergy, where 1+1=3.

Let’s start internally. The strongest relationship for Shopper Insights often lies with Category Management and with good reason. With both teams focused on the category, retailer and shopper and their efforts are completely intertwined. Shopper Insights is the fuel of the category manager’s work as it brings unique and compelling insights to the customer about things that are important to them. Category managers are experts at all the drivers of the category and are fully invested in the strategies of the retailers. When category managers and Shopper Insights are aligned and wholly understand the customer, their strategies and growth opportunities, they are a powerful combination. These take shape in the marketplace through things like:

Shopper segmentations — which shoppers are driving growth and WHY; which shoppers offer the most growth opportunity and WHY.
Assortment strategies — based on analytics, category strategy, but added insights on shopper preference and product placement on shelf, etc.
Total store experience — how are shoppers feeling about the entire store experience, directly impacting traffic and growth.
New item sell stories — adding the category and shopper perspective to the product testing information enables stronger stories to drive higher acceptance and optimal shelf locations.

Shopper Insights and Category Management perform best when there is full transparency and cooperation. The more they learn together, the more they ask smart questions — back to — the more they learn together.

Although it sounds elementary, data sharing across functions is essential. Seeing data from Consumer Insights offers Shopper Insights a more comprehensive view of the consumer. This is incorporated into the full body of learning and can only enhance the insights that get activated and shared. Sometimes there isn’t one direct data point that changes a strategy but noticing shifts and nuances how these might impact the shopper sets up innovative thinking and interesting hypotheses.

Some examples of things to keep an eye on:

Lifestyle preferences of consumers.
Larger trends that impact consumers and shoppers:
- Health and wellness
- Flavor and Food Service trends
- Sustainability trends
- Technology trends
Social media and Influencer impacts

Sharing expertise back to Consumer Insights on things that impact the shopper and retailer in the marketplace can benefit the brand as it develops products and strategies. The shopper is at the center of retailers’ plans and needs to be incorporated into the products and messages created by the manufacturer. This includes:

Potential impact of packaging changes on the category as well as the brand.
Shopper purchase behavior in the category.
Shopper preferences and behavior shifts at product, category, retailer and channel levels.
Shopper-based retailer specific learnings.

The more the Shopper and Consumer Insights teams know about the shopper and why they do what they do, the sharper the pencil when creating and activating strategies. Manufacturers can create great products and compelling advertising and messaging, but the true test comes when the shopper is at the shelf — both in-store and the virtual shelf.

Innovation teams can benefit from a strong relationship with Shopper Insights as choice on the shelf is the moment of truth for their product. Many resources are invested in understanding the right attributes of the physical product, and rightly so; however, it would be a miss to underestimate the impact of shopper-facing attributes in the context of the whole category, shelf and channel. Since the innovation must first be accepted by the retailers, it’s critical that it meets the requirements of the retailer, both on physical and digital shelves. Sometimes the basics of the retail environment get lost in the development of a product like package size, shelf space, and pack-out details. Offering the shopper and retailer perspective early in the innovation development process can save resources and time in making adjustments.

As far as external relationships, the one between the manufacturer and the Retailer Insights functions is extremely impactful. If both organizations are sharing information and insights on category and shoppers, the synergy is powerful. Earning a trusted partnership generally doesn’t happen quickly, but built over time with consistent, quality work designed to answer the business questions facing the category and both teams. It’s an investment that can have big implications.

Creating all the insights and developing the expertise doesn’t happen overnight. A strong Shopper Insights function does require investment in resources, both in budget and with the right people with the right skills. But it doesn’t have to start big. You can start with smaller investments and grow as your need and influence grows.

A good first step is investing in shopper data. It’s an excellent way to start to build your Shopper Insights expertise. Learning more about What, Where, When and How and any changes to that behavior is valuable. If you look carefully and with your category knowledge, you can see patterns and start to make predictions. That’s where the real opportunity lies. This next level of investment helps you get to the Why. Here is where you start to hear from shoppers through surveys. It can come from DIY platforms or you might need custom primary research. The important part is to understand the business question and then develop the right method to hear what the shoppers think. No need to complicate it if you don’t need to.

The more the work makes an impact with customers and visibility with your internal partners, the better chance of increasing tools or resources. Shopper Insights leaders should tirelessly advocate for investment and growth in the function, both tools and talent.

SIMA has developed a Shopper Insights Framework that outlines the development of Shopper Insights teams from Forming (just starting out) to Excelling (industry leading insights.) available for members in our Resource Library. There is also a suite of courses designed to elevate the skills of Shopper Insights professionals, from Insights Immersions to category roles to space planning basics and of course, primary research foundations.

The Shopper Insights discipline is essential to understanding the key element in the marketplace – the shopper. Bringing that perspective to all the teams that touch categories and products not only makes it more successful for the brands and retailers but ultimately delights the shopper in giving them what they want.