What Supermarkets Can Teach You About Sales Funnels…

I was reading an article in The Wall Street Journal about how grocery stores are changing.

Specifically, one of the big points the article made…

Is that retailers are now starting to make their own decisions about how to display items…

Whereas in the past…

It was big consumer brands (i.e. Proctor and Gamble) that got to dictate where and how their items were displayed.

So what led to this shifting power dynamic?

Better data.

The big grocery chains have made substantial investments in analytics over the past decade… 📊

And now, they often have better insights into consumer behavior than the big brands.

Today, retailers know…

• Where their average customer’s eyes go (the middle shelves in an aisle)…
• Where the best place to put items for kids is (the bottom shelves, because that’s eye level with children)…
• Where to put common household goods (waist level)…

Plus…

They even know how much time a typical customer is willing to spend looking for certain products before giving up (they call this the customer’s “walk rate”). 🛒

As a result…

When some big brand comes into their store and says, “You should place this product in the center of the aisle!”

The supermarket can readily refuse them, and they have the data to support their decision.

So, why am I writing about this? 🤔

Two Big Reasons:

1. Don’t underestimate the power of data.

You’d be shocked by how many fairly successful marketers don’t even have Google Analytics set up properly. Or who do have GA in place but never spend any time looking at it. This is crazy — the more insights you have into your prospects’ funnels, the more you can see what’s working and what’s not, and the easier it is to optimize for higher conversions and sales.

2. This article is also a really good reminder of why you need to plan out your sales funnel carefully.

You see, one thing supermarkets have found is that moving a popular brand from the top shelf of the aisle to a shelf that’s eye level with the average consumer can increase sales by 4%. Meanwhile, putting a generic brand (that the supermarket has a higher margin on) directly next to a name-brand, increases take rates on the generic brand by 5% or more.

And it’s the same thing with your sales funnel. Putting the right products in the right place can make a significant difference in your conversion rate (this is one of the reasons that picking the right product for your first Upsell is so important, by the way).

Anyway, that’s it for today.

This article is on the shorter side (for me)…

But I did want to share, as I think there are some interesting insights to be had.

– SPG

P.S. This article originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.