Myriam Martensen, Commercial Director Nordics, CPS GfK
Convenience and personalized promotions are increasingly supported by online leaflets, digital loyalty schemes and digital price signs as well as retailer apps. The spreading digitization enables retailers to better target their shoppers and Swedish consumers, being known as especially tech-savvy, rank second with 31% of shoppers being influenced by personalized promotions. Across Europe, 16% of purchasing decisions are influenced by personalized promotions, with Romania at the top of the list at 38% and Bulgaria reaching 29%.
Personalized promotions based on loyalty cards are standard in Swedish grocery and, in case of ICA, the largest retailer group, up to 90% of Swedish households have a banner loyalty card of one or more grocery stores.
Shopping around and bargain-hunting have become popular coping strategies in Europe with Danish consumers leading the space with nearly 1 in 2 shoppers scouring different stores to find the best prices. Adding to an increase of Danish people struggling, especially among families and older people, this coping strategy is facilitated by a unique high density of shops in Denmark.
As a result, promotion shares are rising, in September 2022, for example, to 40% in Denmark and 38% in Sweden.
THE NORDICS: More shopping around as more consumers struggle
Consumers are also trying to save money by reducing waste, be it through a better use of leftovers at home or buying smaller portions and less packaged food in store. In Denmark, the top three criteria influencing purchase decisions are now inflation and price perception, followed by healthy ingredients and waste reduction in third place: for 28% of Danish shoppers, eco-friendly packaging ranks fourth in their buying decisions. Danish retailers are climbing onto the bandwagon, using “eco-economizing” as an additional promotion lever, for example with recipes for leftovers, surprise bags of ‘Too Good To Go’, promoting odd form vegetables or special portioned packaging.
