Does my packaging contain the right volume?

Adjustments to the quantity can have a major impact on sales volume, both positively and negatively. That’s why it’s important to substantiate your case well.

There are several ways to adjust the quantity:

  • Adjustments to the basic packaging (for example, from 200 to 300gr)
  • Adjusting multi-packs (for example, 15 to 24 cans)
  • Shrinking products per 2, 3, …

Below, we show through a number of examples whether or not it is a good idea to make an adjustment.

Case

In the category that we take as an example here, we see that some suppliers choose a packaging per 10 pieces, others choose for 20 or 40 pieces. The category is declining and so the supplier in our example is wondering if he would not be better off switching from 10 to 20 pieces for his main reference.

What are the performances of the two segments?

We start with the general figures of the two segments, in this case the 10 and 20 pieces:

  • The volumes of the 20 pieces are falling faster than those of the 10 pieces.
  • Price increases are causing a decrease in the number of customers and/or frequency.
  • Customers who buy ‘10 pieces’ purchase lower volumes per piece (110 gr versus 200 gr for 20 pieces).
  • ‘10 pieces’ customers mix more references, they buy an average of 1.6 SKUs, while this is 1.2 SKUs for the 20 pieces.

Origin tables: in the ‘Category Report’ (available in Basic and Advanced Pack), go to the ‘Category’ tab and click on ‘create your own segment’ at the top right. Click on the blue ‘unlock products’ button and select the products. You can search for ‘10s’ in the search bar to find all packages with 10 pieces. You select the products, click on ‘Apply’ at the bottom and then again on the blue button.

How do customers buy my products in the store?

All references from the supplier

We have selected all references from the supplier here and we see that about 40% of customers only buy 1 reference at a time. In volumes, this represents about 16% of the volumes.

These are the customers who should be buying a larger quantity per trip than they currently do. Here you run the greatest risk of them dropping out, but also customers who buy them per 3, 5, 7,… need to make an adjustment and can choose to round both up and down.

In addition, we notice that there are quite a few customers who mix references, which we also saw in the general figures. By offering smaller packaging, you make it easier for the customer to mix different flavors, which can be a competitive advantage. Therefore, it is interesting to also take a deeper look per article, how much do they buy of each article separately?

The most important articles

Origin tables: in the ‘Receipt Analysis’ (available in Advanced Pack) we select the articles from the supplier. Among the different SKUs per bucket, we choose a vitality that is ‘average’, so not during a promotion period. We can view the table both in number of cash register tickets and in units, to be able to estimate the impact.

If we look at the most important articles of the supplier and at individual references, then we see that between 50 to 80% of the cash register tickets contain only 1 article. In volume, the impact is of course more limited.

Conclusion

In this example, the change seems to have an impact for a large number of customers. In volumes, the impact is somewhat more limited, but a large part of the customers would have to adjust their purchase quantity or reference. Being able to mix different references seems to be an advantage in this case.

As an interim solution, you could provide a reduction in this case.