Have you seen How To SELL Anything?

This incredible sales handbook distils an expert's lifetime of sales and marketing experience and hands it to you on a platter, in a simple, easy-to-follow format. With existing customers being the most valuable source of income for any business, this book will teach you how to increase your return business and make more profit from your most loyal customers - and even how to reduce the costs of dealing with your least profitable customers.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)

Price-aware shoppers also want good experiences

The study, entitled 'Shopping in Tough Times', found that the consumer's overall shopping experience, in addition to the price and the availability of promotions, are now so important to shoppers that one in three are prepared to change stores in order to find a faster, easier and cheaper shopping experience.

Despite a 'back to basics' approach that is leading shoppers to seek out offers, 65% will buy more private label products (compared to 64% in Europe) and 69% will spend more time planning their shopping (73% in Europe)in order to avoid non-essential purchases. 86% of shoppers (73% in Europe) still want to find some enjoyment. This is leading many shoppers to add at least one or two items of luxury to their baskets - such as special flavour coffee cups or fresh berries for a special cake.

Most shoppers (69%) said they are highly influenced in their choice of store by the shopping experience and 70% by the price offer and promotion on products available in store. Some 61% say that the assortment of their favourite products is important in store selection. In the past year 39% of UK shoppers have changed their main grocery store.

At the same time, 41% of shoppers in the UK and Europe believe that they will be worse off over the coming months. This pessimism about the future is forcing shoppers to pay more attention to price. More than79% of shoppers (77% in Europe) felt that prices had increased significantly over the last year. As a result they are avoiding non-essential purchases (73% in Europe and 70% in the UK) shopping less frequently (50% across Europe and 43% in the UK) and spending less on each shopping trip (62% across Europe compared to 52% in the UK.)

As 80% of shoppers across Europe pay more attention to promotions in order to meet the rising cost of their grocery shopping baskets - with 76% in the UK - visiting retailers' websites has become a leading source of information about them for 27% of shoppers in the UK. In most other European countries paper store leaflets are the biggest source, with 69% of shoppers in Europe relying on them for information.

However, when looking for best deals, shoppers are using multiple sources of information such as advertising, price comparison websites, and retailers' own websites. Less than one quarter of shoppers in the UK are visiting brands websites or consumer review websites. Social media was not even cited as an influence in the planning process.

"Manufacturers must invest time and money to gain visibility on these influential retail platforms," said Laura Volponi, international shopper insights director for IRI. "They must also evaluate whether their current digital marketing activities are contributing to sales. Shoppers can no longer be defined by whether they are poor or wealthy. All shoppers are looking for the best value mix of price and quality and our research proves that traditional marketing tactics still play a hugely important role. We are still in an economic crisis that continues to force shoppers to adapt."

The manufacturers that succeed now, according to Volponi, will be those that respond to the situation with affordable innovation and solutions that help shoppers to save money (i.e. bigger pack formats) and to avoid waste (i.e. smaller packs formats) depending on categories' spending. Recognising that shoppers have a real need to cut purchases but are still looking for luxury, it is essential for brands and retailers to gain their trust in this respect, and to engage with them.

Have you seen How To SELL Anything?

This incredible sales handbook distils an expert's lifetime of sales and marketing experience and hands it to you on a platter, in a simple, easy-to-follow format.

With existing customers being the most valuable source of income for any business, this book will teach you how to increase your return business and make more profit from your most loyal customers - and even how to reduce the costs of dealing with your least profitable customers.

You'll learn to sell yourself, sell your products, and sell your brand on the internet, writing high-conversion landing pages, social media posts, and more. You'll start attracting customers you didn’t even know existed, and learn the top trade secrets for customer retention.

You'll become a lean, mean selling machine. See how the experts do it and learn to adapt what they've done for your own profit. You'll learn to write strong, powerful, effective sales copy, whether it's for a sales script, sales letter, flyer, insert, advert or just about anything else.

You'll learn how to sell whether you're selling by telephone, by mail, or even meeting prospects face-to-face. You'll find out how to size them up, present yourself, nail down their true needs, close the sale, and learn to tackle the tricky ones.

You'll discover the biggest secrets of successful direct mail sellers, sales letter writers, and how to segment and choose the right prospects for each campaign.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)