Analysis of 60 million households globally shows retailers can significantly boost incremental sales with assortments customized for local shoppers
SymphonyAI Retail CPG, a SymphonyAI division, released global shopper research that reveals how data-based, customer-centric product assortments can grow a retailer’s overall sales and customer loyalty, even during unfavorable economic conditions. The study found that stores using AI-powered assortments customized for local shoppers generated nearly 1-2% more in annual incremental sales than those without.
“All retailers strive to fill store shelves with products that satisfy their customers’ needs, but keeping up with those needs is more challenging than ever”
The incremental sales — and a correlated increase in shopper satisfaction — provide a significant advantage over retailers who do not use advanced customer insights in assortment decisions. However, generating customer-centric assortments is complex and requires a more connected and holistic view of assortment: connecting to and analyzing many disparate, granular data sources. These include price sensitivity, product quality preferences, demographics, SKU performance, store and shelf space constraints, and local supply chain availability and conditions. As part of this, retailers should use AI and advanced analytics to derive the insights necessary to create shopper-centric assortments that also take into account local constraints.
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SymphonyAI’s study analyzed shopper data from more than 60 million households and more than 630 million shopper baskets worldwide to better understand whether in-store assortments matched shopper preferences. In addition to identifying the sales impact of a more customer-centric product assortment, the study also revealed additional insights:
- Smaller-sized stores with less shelf space benefited the most from using a customer-centric assortment, growing sales on average by nearly 2% annually.
- Stores that incorporated customer needs into assortment improved loyalty and retention of its most valuable shoppers by half a percentage point — a significant impact as retention and growth of primary shoppers is a strategic priority for retailers.
- The impact of customer-centric assortments varies by category; those with the highest incremental sales include frozen meals, baby food, oral care, healthy foods, and sweet snacks.
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“All retailers strive to fill store shelves with products that satisfy their customers’ needs, but keeping up with those needs is more challenging than ever,” said Laetitia Berthier, head of client management, SymphonyAI Retail CPG. “E-commerce, competing store formats, and rapidly evolving shopper behavior have made optimizing product assortments in stores very difficult using traditional methods. Fortunately, AI-based solutions using predictive and generative AI can seamlessly deliver these space-aware and customer-centric assortments at scale, enabling retailers to develop an enduring competitive advantage.”
SymphonyAI Retail CPG cuts through the complexity using AI-powered solutions that analyze large and enterprise-wide data sets, including shopper data, to develop optimal category plans and localized, shopper-centric assortments that improve efficiency and performance. This exclusive first-of-its-kind research, which reviewed shopper data across more than 630 million shopper baskets in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, is featured in SymphonyAI Retail CPG’s e-book, “The Power of Customer-Centric Assortment Decisions.”
