Masha Sajdeh of Arc Worldwide presented a great piece of brand new multichannel research at the In-Store Marketing Expo that took place here in Chicago last week. This studies methodology and sample was a solid:
- 3 countries
- 5,609 respondents
- 60 minute online survey
- 20 categories of products examined
- 10 unique channels probed
The entire Arc multichannel study is worth a careful read, but due to it’s length (57 pages) we’ll only examine a few portions that pertain to better understand which channel different types of multichannel shoppers are using and why.
For those not familuar with the concept of what multichannel shopping is all about, this is a great visual explanation.
So first let’s examine a few of the insights uncovered around how much time different multichannel shoppers spend per channel on a monthly basis. Surprisingly, the circular is the channel that showed the highest usage across all of the different types of mutlichannel shoppers (excluding a retailer’s own web site and store).
Note how the circular across all types of multichannel shoppers plays a critical role in adding the shopping process.
If we take a closer look at just the medium and heavy mutlichannel shoppers, the picture becomes even more stark. A retailer’s own web site and physical store are used heavily and fairly equally by both types. However the usage pattern around circulars is very different with heavy multichannel shoppers (arguable the most desirable and profitable type of shopper) using the circulars 95% of the time, which is higher than the retailer’s own web site. Even the more moderate mutlichannel shoppers are using the circulars at pretty hefty rates of 61%, which when again compared to a retailer’s own web site usage of 69% clearly demonstrates the continued importance of the circular to multichannel shoppers.
Wow, circulars are nearly as used by heavy multichannel shoppers as a retailers own physical stores!
Finally let’s try to get to the bottom of the ‘why’ – in this case, the ‘why’ is what causes these multichannel shoppers to use which channel when. Not surprising, circulars are all about saving money. Catalogs on the other hand are all about providing shoppers with inspiration.
Every single channel has a unique use and value proposition to a multichannel shopper.
WOW. We finally reached critical mass. As of yesterday, the CircularCentral team here at ShopLocal has official launched into production one-hundred and five (yes, 105!) co-branded instances of CircularCentral (mainly across the Gannett Digital Network of newspaper and broadcast sites). That’s a lot of web sites to produce, test and migrate in a very short span of about 2 months. But the team did it, on schedule every step of the way.
105 CircularCentral sites are now live and lots of future growth to go! The orders for new partner site instances for CircularCentral just keep rolling in.
The below directory of CircularCentral sites follows the following format:
- Publisher or Broadcast Station or Newspaper Partner Name
- Local Market(s) Served
- Web site address / URL of the corresponding co-branded instance of CircularCentral
Here is the complete current list of ALL of the CircularCentral network of sites:
- Yahoo!
- YourLI.com
- The Cincinnati Enquirer
- The Detroit Free Press – Custom Integrated eEdition Version
- The Detroit News – Custom Integrated eEdition Version
- The Indianapolis Star
- The Arizona Republic
- Asbury Park Press
- Florida Today
- The Des Moines Register
- The News-Press
- The Greenville News
- The Honolulu Advertiser
- The Courier-Journal
- The Tennessean
- Reno Gazette-Journal
- Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
- The Journal News
- The News Journal
- Asheville Citizen-Times
- WXIA-TV, Atlanta
- The Burlington Free Press
- Courier News
- Courier-Post
- KUSA-TV, Denver
- The Detroit Free Press
- The Detroit News
- Green Bay Press-Gazette
- The Clarion-Ledger
- KARE-TV, Minneapolis-St. Paul
- The Montgomery Advertiser
- Daily Record
- The Desert Sun
- Pensacola News Journal
- Poughkeepsie Journal
- Argus Leader
- Springfield News-Leader
- Tallahassee Democrat
- USA TODAY
- The Post-Crescent
- Press & Sun-Bulletin
- Star-Gazette
- The Reporter
- Iowa City Press-Citizen
- Journal and Courier
- Lansing State Journal
- Herald Times Reporter
- News Journal
- The Star Press
- Oshkosh Northwestern
- Statesman Journal
- The Sheboygan Press
- The Shreveport Times
- St. Cloud Times
- Stevens Point Journal
- WTSP-TV, St. Petersburg
- Tucson Citizen
- Wausau Daily Herald
- The Daily Tribune
- The Town Talk
- Battle Creek Enquirer
- Telegraph-Forum
- Newspaper Network of Central Ohio
- Chillicothe Gazette
- The Leaf-Chronicle
- Coshocton Tribune
- The News-Messenger
- Fort Collins Coloradoan
- Great Falls Tribune
- The Daily Advertiser
- Lancaster Eagle-Gazette
- The Marion Star
- Marshfield News Herald
- The News Star
- The Advocate
- Daily World
- News Herald
- Times Herald
- Times Recorder
- WLBZ-TV, Bangor
- WGRZ-TV, Buffalo
- WKYC-TV, Cleveland
- WLTX-TV, Columbia
- WZZM-TV, Grand Rapids
- WFMY-TV, Greensboro
- Hattiesburg American
- The Ithaca Journal
- The Jackson Sun
- WJXX-TV & WTL-TV
- WBIR-TV, Knoxville
- Daily Press & Argus, Livingston County
- KTHV-TV, Little Rock
- WMAZ-TV, Macon
- The Baxter Bulletin
- The Daily News Journal
- WCSH-TV, Portland
- Palladium-Item
- KXTV-TV, Sacramento
- The Californian
- The Daily Times
- The Spectrum
- KSDK-TV, St. Louis
- The Daily News Leader
- The Daily Journal
- Visalia Times-Delta
- WUSA-TV, Washington
When looking at local print as a advertising medium that can be extended online for additional distribution, why hold onto all of the typical limitations that a circular / FSI type promotion places such as:
- The non-reactive time line (most circulars are created month(s) in advance) of typical print ad production which limits the competitive responsiveness of product assortment and pricing
- Mistakes that sneak into the print ads require huge costs and processes for managing
- The limited physical space which prevents many promotions and deals from every being included in the advertisement
- The ever rising costs of printing and transportation
- The ever declining distribution options due to the decline in newspaper circulation
By going virtual with store based promotions, many of the constraints that print imposes disappear
By utilizing digital publishing for the benefits that it affords and doing virtual store-based promotions, one could expect to now realize:
- An unlimited number of pages, deals and items can be included and promoted
- Substantial savings over print ads as all of the paper, ink, printing, transportation and newspaper insertion fees no longer apply
- Near real time product assortment and pricing updates are possible so one will no longer to be forced into honoring misprints, errors, etc
- Distribution of this highly localized in store promotions across every possible digital medium including paid search, rich media display ads, widgets, mobile and much more
- Using your local in-store advertising (eg virtual promotions) to help mange down end-of-life cycle items, stock shortages, inventory surpluses, new product introductions, etc
Below is a overview presentation that is rich with graphical examples of leading retailers such as The Home Depot, Whole Foods, Target and Sears that are blazing a trail in this area. Not all paths have lead to immediate success, with the biggest hurdle being how to get an equivalent amount of local distribution for less money than print costs, but in all cases the business goal was the same. How to look beyond the day where print circulars are no longer the primary method of localized in-store advertising.
The learnings each retailer has generated have been immense and very insightful, with the most successful to date (Target) not giving up after the first try but rather continually evaluating and adjusting their web only exclusive content strategies. For reference, included in the presentation are five different versions of virtual pages that Target has run over the years. It’s fun to see them all in chronological order (from most recent to oldest) as one can really see the progress in integration, messaging, branding and positioning.
Finally here are some related documents that provide great insight and details on this initiative: Virtual Pages Discussion Guide and Virtual Pages Feature Guide
Back in 2004, ShopLocal (called CrossMedia Services at the time) only had one single Canadian client – Staples Business Depot. From that starting point to today, ShopLocal has really carved out a decent chunk of business inside of Canada with over 20 live sites that are dedicated to serving this market. With the recent partnership of Canwest however, this will provide the a large accelerant to ShopLocal penetrating the remaining markets and retail verticals within Canada (and taking market share away from the only two mentionable competitors – Conversys and Flyerland which is run by Metroland Media Group – a pseudo competitor to Canwest).
The entire ShopLocal team is buzzing about the possibilities of having one of the largest print media / publisher behind this effort. The interactions to date with the entire Canwest team have been amazing and have only confirmed that they are the right partner to tackle the Canadian market with. 2009 will be the year marked by the progress of how this partnership grows in scope and size, both of which already have long lists of ideas and concepts already being worked on.
Also a quick bit of deserved recognition to both the Canwest and ShopLocal teams for hitting every single milestone date and launching this multi-month effort on time. Building and implementing an entire print – to- web business for 12 active newspapers is no small challenge and took some real dedicated effort on everyone’s part. This launch includes all of the Flyers/FSIs/Circulars, Run of Press (ROP) ads and Special Section conversion processing and digital distribution for any participating Canwest advertiser.
Here Is The Complete List Of All Of The ShopLocal | Canwest Canadian Comparison Shopping Sites That Were Just Rolled Out (12 total, listed A – Z, all part of the Canada.com Newspaper Network):
Current ShopLocal SmartCircular Canadian Clients (or as in Canada, circulars are called ‘Flyers’ so maybe this should be called SmartFlyer):
Finally, here is the official press release that went out covering this new partnership with Canwest and below is a limited wrap up of the other sites that picked up this story if an outside perspective is desired.
This never ending debate is all the rage once again. Coupon usage is up, especially from a digital and mobile perspective. Most of the press coverage in this debate has firmly centered around couponing. There is however some new research that SheSpeaks has released. The first conclusion that it reaches is that coupons and flyers/ads/circulars are the two most effective types of incentives to drive people into local stores. So basically this race between coupons and discounts is a dead heat still.
If the goal is to activate shoppers to the point where they leave their home and go into a local store, coupons and circulars/flyers are about as effective. Clearly the best two tactics to use.
The next interesting insight that this research offers is what types of incentives make shoppers think that they got a good deal while shopping. Again, this race remains deadlocked as both coupons and sales/discounts are the most effective at creating the consumer perception that an item is a good deal. I guess this debate will have to die another day.
Both coupons and sales/discounts are the best are helping consumers think / feel / perceive that what they are buying is a good value
About this research survey:
- Study was conducted online in October 2008
- 2,000 SheSpeaks members completed the survey
- 90% of Respondents were between the ages of 24-65
- No incentive was provided for participating
- SheSpeaks is the leading women’s insights and word-of-mouth marketing network enabling brands to directly engage to build insight and brand buzz.
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