The retail world is undergoing a profound transformation today. With the current testing of the Oui Pub system, the paper catalog is at risk of extinction. For many retailers, the very fundamentals of their profession are being shaken up: both the store organization and setup are affected. What will the promotions of tomorrow look like?

The paper catalog still structures the store and its aisles

Traditional paper catalogs have long been at the heart of retail. They are gradually losing their significance in the face of the value of commercial data. Promotions, negotiated and designed months in advance, are a precious treasure for distributors. The shift to the digital world is prompting retailers to reconsider the value of promotional data and to show it on other platforms.

30 to 40% of French customers and consumers are looking for promotional offers

The current inflation context encourages French people to pay attention to promotions. The tighter the economic situation is, the stronger the demand for promotions in households. This is why retailers must make promotions accessible to all French people on their favorite platforms.

By deconstructing this historical media to highlight this promotional data, what are the three major rules or lessons to be drawn?

In this new era, three main rules stand out. First, it is essential to overexpose the promotional offer in the digital world using various available channels such as WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook. Retailers need to create relevant alerts for consumers throughout their digital journey.

“We will have to multiply the exposures, meaning we need to make an effort to overexpose this famous promotional offer. It’s essential that in their digitized journey, customers are constantly alerted, reminding them that a particular product is on promotion at Carrefour, Aldi, Leclerc, Intermarché, or System U.”

The offer needs to be overexposed in the digital world.

How to overexpose digital customers to more than 700 units of need?

The second crucial point is personalization. “We will need to use all the tools at our disposal to ensure that the commercial offer is as relevant, targeted, and impactful as possible.”

An attentive customer, representing 30 to 40% of French households, will spend roughly between 3 and 4 minutes browsing a 24 or 56 page catalog.

A customer exposed to 400 offers only remembers 2 or 3.

A digital customer will also browse their e-catalog for 3 to 4 minutes. The key difference is that they will stop midway through the catalog: the value of the last page is therefore zero.

The challenge for retailers is to expose each customer profile in a relevant pattern to achieve optimized browsing time.

Commercial data is an absolutely strategic element. A brand’s commercial and promotional data has a short lifespan, yet it holds great value.

Amazon and the quest for food data

“For almost 10 years now, Amazon has been trying to get its hands on the conversation of the food purchase relationship. The great difficulty with non-food items is that they have much weaker interpretation and knowledge characteristics than food items and especially an extremely irregular frequency.
The Holy Grail of commercial data is food data for a very simple reason: behind these contents, that is, knowledge of both the offers made and the offers chosen and consumed, we have a sharp understanding of what’s going on. We can determine the number of people in a household, their income level, where they live, and what they consume, etc.

The store media

The store is a genuine media and consumption place; it’s a fixture now. “Ten years ago, we saw Amazon wiping out everyone, and consumers were going to shop and have groceries delivered to their homes. However, we now know that even the younger generations X, Y, and Z go to stores to shop.”

The store is essential. In a logic of ultra-exposure combined with ultra-personalization and sanctification, we will have to put these devices at the service of the store. This means we will need to take into account both the store’s specifics and its catchment area, consider the store’s pricing, and product availability.

Thirdly, in-store devices play a crucial role. In-store media represents a significant opportunity for retailers, as physical commerce remains a critical component despite the rise of online shopping. Stores must be integrated into the overall strategy and equipped with technological tools to maximize their performance.

No ideal mix

“We are going to see evolving mixes; this means we will have to massively deploy a form of agility in terms of exposure, targeting, tools, partnerships, and algorithms to achieve maximum performance.”

In conclusion, there isn’t a predefined ideal mix for this revolution. Retailers will need to combine increased exposure, sharp personalization, and advanced technological management for optimal results. The transition to the digital world will require high-tech tools and partnerships to effectively steer promotional strategies.