Think mobile to connect consumers to private brands

Grocery shopping is going digital. Today’s consumers use smartphones, laptops and tablets, among other devices, along the path to purchase. To cater to consumers’ increasingly digital shopping habits, grocers must amplify their digital presence. This poses a unique opportunity for retailers with private brands, which are not only transitioning themselves into the digital realm, but also are looking to grow categories through these brands.

To rise to the complex challenges of today’s grocery marketplace, retailers need to offer improved access to their store brand products by providing a complete representation of these items on digital channels, especially mobile. They could do this in a number of ways, three of which are discussed here.

1. Retailers’ mobile platforms

To effectively promote store brands on their own apps, retailers should push mobile coupons for such products and clearly advertise the store brands that are available. Consumers know private brands exist, and they often seek out those brands. With that in mind, retailers need to ensure that private labels are visible within their apps to efficiently market to consumers.

According to a recent survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers International (http://tinyurl.com/ledcn72), 21 percent of shoppers use a retailer’s mobile app weekly, while 22 percent use a retailer’s mobile site weekly. The bottom line: Consumers are using mobile to research brands. A consistent representation across those platforms is particularly important for private brands because it presents the retailer as a source of value and convenience for shoppers.

2. Third-party apps

In recent years, many third-party mobile apps have surfaced to assist shoppers along the path to purchase. For example, there are apps such as Retale that consolidate retailers’ circulars, and couponing apps such as Coupons.com that offer coupons for a multitude of brands.

Retailers must distribute their private brand content to third-party apps and ensure that these products are represented in their own promotions for third-party apps to aggregate. By doing so, retailers give consumers the opportunity to select their brands. This is an especially important strategy because many consumers now perceive private brands to be on par with national brands in terms of quality.

3. Targeted mobile offers

Grocery shoppers are heavily researching products via mobile. According to a study performed by KSC Kreate, 33 percent of grocery shoppers use a mobile device in-store to look up recipe ideas, coupons, nutritional information and/or competitor pricing.

Accurate presentation for private brands is important on the retailer’s mobile app, and targeted offers can take that presentation a step farther by converting researchers into buyers. For example, if a consumer searches for green bean casserole recipes on a grocer’s mobile app, the instant presentation of coupons for store brand mushroom soup and green beans could give the customer an incentive to buy.

Just as important, tailored discounts and offers significantly improve the overall customer experience, further improving the retailer’s ability to compete against online and brick-and-mortar competitors.

Don’t wait

Right now, private label brands are in a great position to reach shoppers through mobile platforms. But that requires retailers ensure that store brands are accurately and consistently represented across digital channels, including mobile.