Spotlight on Wet Wipes

From freshening up baby to sanitizing countertops, wet wipes can take care of many messy situations easily and effectively. And if those wipes come under a retailer’s own brand, they can save shoppers money too.

However, given the myriad products under various brands across different wet wipes categories, store brand wipes can be difficult to spot in the crowd. Therefore, retailers need to make sure they’re doing everything they can to get those wipes front and center — and into shoppers’ carts.

To see what retailers are doing well and not so well here, we visited three stores in the Denver metropolitan area: a King Soopers store (operated by Cincinnati-based Kroger Co.), an Albertsons store (operated by Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons LLC) and a Safeway store (operated by Pleasanton, Calif.-based Safeway Inc.). Our visits took place on a Friday afternoon in late October 2014.

King Soopers

General observations: At the King Soopers store we visited, beauty care products (including wipes) are housed in an aisle toward the right-hand side of the store (looking into the store from the front entrance), while baby care products (including wipes) retail in an aisle toward the center of the store. In between the two aisles, feminine hygiene products (including wipes) and household cleaner products (including wipes) each are located in their own aisle. Foot traffic was moderate in these sections, with several people entering the aisles while we browsed.

We found wipes under store brands in the feminine hygiene (Kroger brand), baby care (Comforts for Baby and Check This Out… brands), beauty care (Kroger brand) and household cleaners (Kroger Home Sense brand) categories.

The upside:

• ■ For the most part, the aisles were clean, well-stocked and organized.
• ■ The retailer placed $1.79 “Sale Price” tags below 40-count Kroger Home Sense Household Antibacterial Wipes, showing them to be a better value than their Wet Ones counterparts, which had $2.99 “Sale Price” tags beneath them.
• ■ The store offers travel-size packs of Kroger Home Sense Wipes, which are situated next to Wet Ones travel packs.
• ■ In the baby care section, a “Low Prices” aisle violator communicated a deal of $1.69 each for select varieties of Comforts for Baby 72-count baby wipes.
• ■ The store hung a tray cross-merchandising travel-size bottles of Comforts for Baby Baby Oil in front of various Huggies brand baby wipes SKUs.
• ■ Beneath select varieties of 216-count Comforts for Baby Wipes packages, the store placed “Seasonal Low Price” tags communicating a two for $9 deal.
• ■ Underneath 72-count Comforts for Baby Scented Baby Wipes, we found a “Low Price” tag communicating a $1.77 deal — 62 cents less than the deal on their Huggies brand counterpart wipes to the left.
• ■ A tag beneath Check This Out… value-tier store brand baby wipes communicated a “10 for $10” deal on the wipes.
• ■ A side-wing display at the end of the baby care section merchandised Comforts for Baby diapers, formula, snacks and wipes with signage touting low prices.
• ■ In the beauty care section, the store hung a $2.79 “Sale Price” tag below Kroger Extra Thick Felt Advanced Nail Polish Remover Pads.
• ■ Even though Neutrogena placed its Neutrogena Makeup Remover Cleansing Towelettes refill packs in a hanging tray with a tag communicating a $4.29 “Sale Price,” the retailer placed its Kroger brand counterpart wipes to the right with a “Sale Price” tag communicating a $2.99 deal.
• ■ We found Kroger brand Oil Absorbing Sheets cross-merchandised in a hanging tray with Kroger brand Vitamin E Body Oil and Vitamin E Body Cream.

The downside:

• ■ A couple of areas were poorly stocked. For example, the top shelf of baby wipes was almost completely empty.
• ■ We found Wet Ones travel packs on a clip strip, but no similar merchandising tactic with Kroger Home Sense travel packs.
• ■ So many SKUs of baby wipes — including store brand SKUs — had sale tags beneath them that the tags’ impact was practically lost.
• ■ Of the three stores we visited, the King Soopers was the only one without a national brand equivalent (NBE) to Clorox’s two-canister (one of Fresh Scent wipes and one of Citrus Blend wipes) packs of household wipes, containing 150 wipes total.

Albertsons

General observations: The Albertsons store we visited merchandises baby care products in an aisle on the right-hand side of the store (looking into the store from the front entrance) — the same aisle housing household cleaners. Feminine hygiene products and beauty care products also are housed in aisles on the right-hand side of the store, with each category in its own aisle.

We found wipes under store brands in the feminine hygiene (Equaline brand), baby care (Baby Basics and Basics for Kids brands), beauty care (Equaline brand) and household cleaners (Essential Everyday brand) categories. All store brands are supplied by Eden Prairie, Minn.-based Supervalu Inc. Foot traffic was light during our visit, with few people entering the aisles while we were browsing.

The upside:

• ■ The shelves were clean, well-stocked and organized.
• ■ Underneath refill packs of Equaline Makeup Remover Cleansing Towelettes, the store placed a “Something More for Less” tag communicating a $3.99 deal — while the packs’ Neutrogena counterparts on the left had tags communicating a $5.59 deal.
• ■ Under most SKUs of baby wipes — store brand and national brand — the store hung tags offering $5 off whenever a shopper purchases $50 worth of store brand and/or national brand baby care products in a single transaction.
• ■ An aisle violator communicated the “new look” and “same great performance and price” of the Baby Basics brand.
• ■ The store placed discount tags communicating “Something More for Less” discounts beneath most store brand baby wipes.
• ■ The Albertsons store we visited is the only store to offer glass surface wipes under its own brand.

The downside:

■ We didn’t find store brand wipes being merchandised beyond the shelf.

Safeway

General observations: At the Safeway store we visited, feminine care and baby care products sell on the right-hand side of an aisle toward the left-hand side of the store (looking into the store from the front entrance). In the next aisle to the left are beauty care products, while household cleaners sell in the next aisle to the right.

We found wipes under store brands in the feminine hygiene (Safeway brand), baby care (mom to mom brand), beauty care (Safeway and Safeway Care brands) and household cleaners (Safeway brand) categories. Foot traffic was very light during our visit, with only one or two people entering the aisles while we were browsing.

The upside:

• ■ The shelves were clean and organized.
• ■ The store hung “Club Price” discount tags beneath packs of Safeway Makeup Remover Sensitive Cleansing Towelettes, which were $1.50 less than the Simple Facial Cleansing Wipes next to them (and not on discount). It did the same for Safeway brand Make-Up Remover Cleansing Cloth Towelettes, which were $1.50 less than the Neutrogena counterparts at their left.

The downside:

• ■ The shelves weren’t very well stocked.
• ■ The store didn’t merchandise its store brand wipes beyond the shelf.
• ■ Although we found a tag communicating a “Club Price” discount underneath Always Clean 4-count feminine wipes, we couldn’t find any price tag underneath their store brand counterpart to the left.
• ■ We found “Club Price” discount tags hanging beneath several packs of Huggies baby wipes refill packs. However, the mom to mom counterparts next to them — which still cost less than the discounted Huggies wipes — had no tags of their own to communicate their value.
• ■ Although Clorox Disinfecting Wipes cost more per canister than their store brand counterpart under their “Club Price” deal ($2.79 vs. $2), a special “Buy 3, Save $3” deal offered three canisters of the Clorox wipes for a total cost less than that of three Safeway brand counterparts.

Clean up your merchandising, packaging

When it comes to placing products where they will be most noticed, retailers should follow the known rule of placing products according to tier, says Joanna Plochocka, head of marketing with EcoWipes, Warsaw, Poland.

And don’t merchandise store brand wet wipes only in their particular category on the shelf, says Jeffrey Mamiye, vice president of Jean Pierre Cosmetics, New York. Economy-tier products should go on the lowest shelf, while highest quality products should go on the top, and any mid-tier products should go in between. Meanwhile, natural and biodegradable products should be given their own dedicated space on shelves to help shoppers better spot them.

“Store brand towelettes should be merchandised across the store,” he states. “While shoppers are browsing where they would typically purchase national brands, give them the opportunity to try your brand,” using an end cap to lure shoppers into making an impulse buy.

In terms of packaging, shoppers should know from just one look whether the product is an NBE item or an innovative product with no counterpart, Mamiye says.

Also, retailers need to make sure they illustrate product features on packaging, calling out only the top two features, says a spokesperson with U.S. Nonwovens Corp., Brentwood, N.Y. Any extra claims on packaging are considered “clutter claims,” which can cause the customer to lose focus on what attributes truly matter.

Speaking of needless claims, avoid making claims that could distort the product’s message and confuse shoppers, explains Cali Carter, marketing coordinator with Irvine, Calif.-based Diamond Wipes. Also consider adding the store’s name on the package to help communicate quality, safety and strict manufacturing guidelines, which gives consumers peace of mind.

And consider color when packaging wet wipes. For example, Plochocka says white packaging works best for cosmetic wipes, while blue packaging works best for kitchen-cleaning wipes, and brown packaging is most suitable for floor- and furniture-cleaning wipes.