Insights Tip: Are my products really performing well enough?

Even though it is very interesting and reassuring to see the products in your category grow, thanks to the tools from Colruyt Group Insights, sometimes a deeper analysis of the product range is necessary to learn more about the trend within the stores, and of competitors. We give you some tips to use and understand your reports as well as possible and to know if your products are competitive.

Before we proceed with our in-depth analyses, let’s first review a number of basic questions. From the answers to these questions, we can delve deeper into a number of things you can do to improve your competitive position.

• Price: are my products correctly priced compared to competitors and in line with your positioning (low price versus premium) 
• Quality 
• USP or Unique Selling Proposition: Is my product distinctive enough? 
• Positioning 
• Availability 
• Marketing actions: Do I have enough brand awareness for my product? Does the consumer recognize it easily and understand the positioning? 
• Market trend in the category: does my product meet a real need of the consumer / an emerging need?

If all lights are green, it’s time to look further and see which of our Colruyt Group Insights can help you further.

The Gain-Loss analysis, available on an adhoc basis, makes it possible to answer a number of questions that make you more competitive. In this report, we study the evolution between 2 periods in more depth.

• Are my category, my brands, and my products still attracting new customers? If not, this could indicate saturation and/or a lower rate of innovation than before. 
• Are consumers leaving the category, regardless of my offer in the market? 
• Are existing customers of the category or brands spending more than before?
  
• Are consumers buying less of my products or brands compared to before? Or are they just pulling customers away from my competitors? In the first case, there may be a potential problem with one or more of the points mentioned earlier in this article. It is also possible that your competitors have carried out more promotions, thereby being able to recruit new customers during the analysis period. The answers to these questions make it easier for you to make better business or marketing decisions about your brands or products.

Tips Insights:

• Have you had product introductions (and/or delistings)? You can include these products separately in the analysis. This way, you can find out if the sales actually come on top or if they cannibalize the existing offer instead.
  
• The Gain-Loss analysis compares 2 periods with each other. We recommend you to select multiple periods (MAT, L6M, L3M) and to look at both the short and the long term.

The Venn diagram, available in our Advanced report, provides insight into the uniqueness of a product or brand. This analysis helps answer questions such as:

• How many of my customers also buy a product from the competition? Or are they more loyal to my brand?
  
• Do my existing customers only buy one product reference or do they combine multiple references from my range? Is it worth investing in cross-selling?

Sometimes, unfortunately, you are faced with the delisting of an item. Often the reflex is to choose the product with the lowest turnover, but it is just as important to check whether the product in question has many unique consumers. If a product, on the other hand, has many customers in common with similar (competing) products, there is a good chance that customers will choose these for their future purchases.

Tips Insights:

• Use the filters above the report. Compare multiple periods (MAT, L6M, L3M) to assess the short and long term. The KPI filter also gives you more information about the quantities purchased by different sets.
  
• The Venn diagram makes it possible to analyze purchasing habits per type of household for each set. This gives you the opportunity to better target your communication if there are significant differences between household groups.

We’ve listed some examples here to improve your sales performance in our stores, but our reports offer numerous other possibilities. If you want to learn more about our reports and analyses, feel free to contact us.