How digital is reshaping the traditional retail flyer experience
In our series “Breaking Through”, we take a closer look at innovations on the verge of transforming customer experience.
The stack of retail flyers that arrive on Canadian doorsteps has been an institution for decades. It’s been the way consumers have been informed of the latest and greatest products and promotions from laundry detergent to big screen TV’s, and where the weekly shopping journey often starts. For retailers, it’s been a critical component of the marketing mix and a key way of driving much coveted traffic to store locations. With digital reshaping so many customer journeys, it’s no surprise the long standing practice of print based flyers is being turned on its head. Household shoppers today are time constrained and more than ever price conscious. And they’re digitally savvy, of course. Today, Canadians are faced with increased household debt and a slumping dollar raising prices of many goods; meaning, they’re continually being stretched. Weekly grocery shopping, for example, is often a key stress point for many families. So, how can digital transform this establishment to help?
Flipp Corporation, born and located in Toronto, is dedicated to changing this paradigm, and they’re starting to get some serious traction. They’re reinventing the weekly shopping experience by bringing retailers and consumers together in a new way that gives shoppers access to the most digital circular content, helping them plan their shopping trips and find the best local deals.
Retail flyers have always been a primary source of shopping information and often the centrepiece to the pre-shop phase in the path to purchase. According to a recent Nielsen survey, flyers are the top source for consumers to plan their weekly shopping trip. A recent report from the University of Guelph's food institute and Dalhousie University found that, due to higher prices, 26 per cent of Canadians have reduced their consumption of produce in the past 12 months. The study also found that more access to data causes consumers to behave differently when it comes to purchasing groceries, and smartphone apps and flyers are making consumers more informed. Flipp’s platform is a destination for millions of consumers to access digital circulars from virtually any Canadian retailer. The app can enable serious savings for shoppers by smartly integrating vendor coupons, making it easy for consumers to get maximum value on their weekly shopping trips.
The flyer continues to be a trusted source of information to help consumers save time and money. As consumers shift to digital, retailers need to ask themselves: Is your flyer ahead of the digital shift, and how can it evolve into the growing omni-channel experience? And for those retailers who never produced print based flyers, a digital only option may become very compelling with reach of such platforms as Flipp. Likewise for the manufacturers and goods suppliers, how could a digital intermediary help bring your brand closer to end consumers? By creating a digital marketplace, brands have a more direct touchpoint with end consumers opening the door for innovative new ways to engage and elevate customer experience.
Retailers cannot sit idle and wait. Accelerating digital business means not only digitizing legacy marketing practices; it also means embracing new digital platforms and marketplaces as customers most certainly are. If you are not aggressively shifting to digital and expanding your thought boundaries around what that means, you may already be behind.
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