While every retailer's site will vary to some extent, we know that most sales from shoppers on the ‘Main Shop’ mission tend to come from search and favorites lists. We also know that shoppers interact with the Digital Shelf using a number of devices and they’re typically on a more focused journey than when in a physical store, looking to fill their basket quickly and get on with other tasks.

Digital Shelf tactics will therefore need to focus on improving the discoverability of products where the most sales occur and ensuring that these products are presented in a way that makes them easy to identify and appealing to buy across all devices.

There are a whole host of tactics that CPGs can employ - across a variety of different areas - to win on the Digital Shelf, but the first areas we’re going to take a look at are Assortment and Availability. The first thing CPGs need to consider is the range they want to sell on retailers’ sites. Is it listed online and is it available to purchase?

Just because a supplier sells products in a retailer’s physical store, doesn’t necessarily mean that these products will automatically be available to buy online. So, CPGs will first need to identify the full assortment they want to be listed on each online retailer’s site and then track and monitor whether or not this is actually happening.

There are a number of reasons why products might not be available online. It might be that listings are restricted because of a retailer’s fulfillment model - if a retailer fulfills online orders from nearby stores then the products available to shoppers online will be limited to the ranges in bricks-and-mortar stores in their area.

In some cases, online merchandising teams require product forms to be completed before a product is listed online, so if these forms haven’t been completed, products might not be available.

CPGs will need to work to understand different retailers’ processes, so they can ensure that their target assortment is available on retailers’ sites. But, there’s also another party that they’ll need to consider when working on target assortments at priority retailers: the shopper. The key here is to be consumer-centric.

Think about your shoppers and what they’re actually looking to achieve online. We know that shoppers on the ‘Main Shop’ mission are looking to stock their cupboards and purchase food for the week ahead and, because they’re shopping online, they’ll have less need to consider the logistics of getting heavy or bulky items home from the store. Because of this, they’re more open to purchasing items in bulk or buying multi-packs, and bundle deals - where multiple products are grouped together in one offer - are often more popular online.

Meal kit solutions are also growing in popularity, with shoppers seeking speed and convenience when they shop online. Retailers and suppliers are well placed to meet this need online, where they aren’t restricted by the limited shelf space that you find in physical stores. So, they can group items together and highlight meal kit solutions to consumers, without worrying about where or how they're going to place the different items together on a physical shelf.

Suppliers will need to take consumer preferences and behavior into account when deciding on their assortment for each retailer, as well as considering their fulfillment models. If you know that a retailer fulfills orders through an online fulfillment center - also known as a dark store - then you might want to explore providing online-exclusive ranges that aren’t available in-store, all to better serve consumers’ online shopping missions.

Assortment & Availability