Magazine: How do shoppers see retail chains?

Why is people’s perception of retailers important? Because subjective reasons also come into the picture when they decide where to do the shopping. In March Kantar Hoffmann conducted a shopping habits survey in the 18-64 age group, asking consumers what they think about hypermarkets (Auchan, Interspar, Tesco) and discount supermarkets (Aldi, Lidl, Penny Market).

The study revealed that when it comes to forming their opinions on retailers, everything is important for consumers – product selection and quality, prices, services, accessibility and store interior. Respondents’ answers showed that all stores performed above 50 percent in the most important aspects, which means that the majority of consumers think that all retailers meet the necessary expectations. What is more, retailers scored above 60 percent in the Top 5 store choice factors!

In general, we can say that discount supermarkets are easier to reach than hypermarkets. It is difficult to compete with Penny Market in terms of prices, but Lidl also did well in the survey in this respect. Hypermarkets’ advantages are the wide selection of private label products, fast checkout, many parking spaces, large selection of clothing products and a money back guarantee. Auchan and Interspar stores are deemed to be the cleanest and tidiest. These two retailers plus Lidl got the highest scores in the product quality category. Shoppers think Tesco, Auchan and Penny Market offer the largest selection of products.

It must be noted that shopper use does have an influence on how consumers see various retailers: people find it easier to give attributes to the stores that they actually visit than to the ones they just heard about. Consequently, strong brands typically attract each image element, while weaker ones are undervalued. This is the reason why the relative image – the one that is compared to the market average – of retailers also needs to be examined.

Shoppers think Penny Market offers the lowest prices. Aldi is special because of it stores, but this isn’t enough to stand out from the crowd. Auchan’s distinctive characteristic is the money back guarantee. Interspar stores are thought to be more expensive than the average but the products they sell are of high quality.

Lidl offers value for money products in clean stores, but has no distinctive character. Tesco’s peculiar feature is the high-speed checkout system. One of the study’s conclusions is that hypermarkets and discount supermarkets do have similar characteristics, but the various retail chains attract shoppers with their special features – the things that aren’t offered by their competitors. //