Our shopper journey

Our mission in life

Our mission in life is to make the shopping experience as enjoyable & as painless as possible.

The way we go about it is to provide FMCG manufacturers & retailers with a common, robust platform of shopper insights. Our belief is that if both manufacturers and retailers have solid, evidential shopper foundations, they will work together in a better way & build fact-based growth plans that really make a difference with shoppers. An additional benefit is that because our insights are syndicated, they are a fraction of the cost that both parties would otherwise pay. So this tends to make everyone happy as well as drive maximum ROI.

Why it works

It puts real shopper facts on the table at a fraction of the cost of what you would other wise pay and delivers them via a user-friendly interface

Our shopper journey

Back in the year 2000, just after nobody’s computer crashed and shortly before the world didn’t come to an end due to the millennium bug, we once again found ourselves in the position of needing some robust, shopper insights. We were working with one of our clients on a category strategy deck and their key retailer had asked them some fairly searching questions about the shopper’s behaviour; they couldn’t answer them because:

1. Our client, like most FMCG businesses at the time, didn’t really understand shopper & why shopper insight was important. The ratio of consumer – shopper insight in the market at that time was 99.9%:0.1% and that was probably being generous.
2. Our client, like most FMCG businesses at the time, was structured with a key focus on brand and the concept of conducting research on anything other than the brand & the consumer was largely unheard of.
3. Our client, like most FMCG businesses was always under pressure for budget and the cost of conducting be-spoke, in-store shopper research was quite prohibitive.

So not for the first time we thought…. ‘if only there was a way to get hold of robust, independent, real shopper research without it costing the earth!’.

And then the thought became a… ‘what if we looked at doing it ourselves….’

And then we did it & evolved it & evolved it again and then well….here we are!

So if we’re being totally honest, Shopperpedia was not really a grand design; it kind of just happened.

Early stage hurdles

We were not trained market researchers

Although we’d all worked in category, sales & marketing roles and had been heavily involved in research projects in the past, the fact was that none of us were trained market researchers. Our knowledge lay in what we wanted to use market research for and not how to actually do it.

So we had to learn fast.

Today we are now market leaders in the provision of in-store, quantitative shopper insight. In-store shopper research is our life; what we do, day in day out.

Manufacturers didn't understand shopper

The majority of our target clients had kind of bought into the concept of shopper, but at the time didn’t really understand what shopper meant in a commercial sense. What was the difference between a consumer and a shopper? What does shopper insight actually look like? Why is shopper insight important? These were very common questions in the early days. We took on this educational role for our clients and, one client after another, they really started to get it, get wins & really develop their internal shopper competency.

The retailers were sceptical

Having had years of different manufacturers across all categories sat across the table claiming that ’…research says that our brand should be eye level…’ or ‘…research says our brand is a beacon at the shelf and needs more facings…’ or ‘…research says shoppers don’t really care about promotions…’, market research had become somewhat of a joke for retailers.

We focused on this with them; especially the difference between the fundamental market research facts and the spin / story that gets attached to it.

We are now a trusted source of shopper insight for all the major retailers in each country in which we operate. They really value the holistic, independent, in-store shopper insight that is uniquely provided by Shopperpedia.

Today manufacturers & retailers have this independent platform and common language with which to work together.

Results to date

We've banged the shopper drum Today, almost all major FMCG companies have a recognised shopper department with greater budget allocation to shopper.	We've put category research on the brand map We've put category research on the brand map. Leading to a wider focus that actually helps brands to grow. Today almost all major FMCG companies recognise the importance of regular category and consumer insight in developing strategy.	We've made in-store shopper insight accessible... We've made in-store shopper insight accessible, continous and cost-friendly to all. Meaning grocery shopping is no longer a big black hole in FMCG business' knowledge.
We've given all clients full access to all categories We've given all clients full access to all categories. So that they can benchmark, compare and trend their data to really understand the unique strangths and weaknesses of their brand , segment and category.	We've turned retailer scepticism about research into trust We've turned retailer scepticism about research into trust. So that both suppliers and retailers can stop arguing about whose view of the world is right and start talking about what to do about it and get better ROI.	We've led the development of the shopper market We've led the development of the shopper market. We aim to continue leading the field.