Consumers Happy with Supermarket Experience

Creating engagement between shoppers and their supermarket is key to trip satisfaction

The Retail Feedback Group recently released its 2014 U.S. Supermarket Experience Study. And results showed that supermarkets continue to generate high satisfaction among their shoppers, scoring an average of 4.46 on a give point scale. 

According to the report, creating engagement between shoppers and their supermarket is key to trip satisfaction, store shopping enjoyment and willingness to recommend. Some other highlights:

• Checkout: Fully 65 percent of shoppers acknowledge that cashiers have a positive impact on their trip experience.
• In-aisle engagement: Pleasant interactions with store associates — including product recommendations — create an immediate payoff in terms of a larger basket size, as well as a longer-term loyalty building advantage given higher-than-average recommendation and satisfaction scores.
• Active problem-solving: Offering assistance in finding items, resolving out-of-stocks or addressing other problems during the trip helps avoid lost sales and dissatisfied shoppers. Supermarkets show room for improvement as only half of shoppers indicated an issue encountered was resolved during the trip.

The report also noted that shoppers are expressing a growing interest in locally sourced items, particularly, locally-grown vegetables, followed by fruit, eggs, meat and poultry, and milk. 

Another interesting note for supermarkets is, according to the report, more than three-quarters of shoppers use some form of money-saving measure during their visit to the supermarket. Printed grocery circulars are read at home by 50 percent of shoppers and used in store by 25 percent, while electronic circulars are used by 21 percent.