Small supermarkets are losing a staggering £295,000 a year per store to ‘failed purchases’, new research by Him! has revealed.

Its annual small supers survey, which quizzed 3,830 shoppers at stores between 3,000 sq ft and 25,000 sq ft owned by the big five, The Co-operative Group and Budgens, found 8% had failed to purchase an item they had visited the store for.

Of those, 49% had not bought the item because it was out of stock, 24% couldn’t find the item, 12% said the store did not sell it and 5% thought the item was too expensive.

This equated to £295,000 lost per store a year, with out-of-stocks accounting for £145,000, and inability to find an item for £71,000.

“Something that EPoS and loyalty card data can never tell us is what shoppers fail to buy,” said Him! insights director Katie Littler. “This is not about encouraging shoppers to trade up or driving incremental purchases or visit frequency. This is about meeting a shopper’s basic need so that they can simply buy all the products they intended to buy.”

Him! also warned that small supermarkets were in danger of being sidelined by retailers as they continued to grow their c-store estates.

“It’s like a forgotten, neglected channel as they focus on the new challenge of convenience,” Littler said. “Yet small supermarkets are increasing in value and store numbers and meeting shopper needs.”

The survey also found that 32% of shoppers had bought something on promotion compared with 23% at a c-store, while 24% had bought something on impulse against 18% at a c-store.

“Simply replicating what is done in larger stores will not lead to success in smaller supermarkets, just as c-stores need a different offer,” Littler said.

Topics