It’s nesting time - by John Stanley
A decade ago Faith Popcorn, the futurologist, proposed that in the future, consumers would start “cocooning” and would be spending more time at home. Between then and now we have seen consumers increase their spending on exotic holidays and eat out more often in restaurants. It seems that we have moved away from cocooning.
But, it’s now all changing. Rising fuel and food costs coupled with declining house prices around the world has meant consumers are changing their habits again and they are cocooning for feathering their nests. This means some businesses will prosper whilst others will find it a lot more challenging to keep up with changing consumer trends.
Those selling exotic holidays are finding that consumers are becoming more difficult to find, while consumers are rediscovering local holiday destinations within a days drive. In the USA the trend is to have holidays at home and the term “Stayville” has been invented to cover this type of vacation. Restaurants are being challenged by the trend for consumers to re-discover the pleasures of cooking at home. As a result one of the growth sales in supermarkets is the full ingredients for making full course meals at home.
Companies that will really benefit are those that are in tune with the consumer when it comes to at home theatre and house improvements. Consumers are also re-discovering their gardens. But the activities in the garden are changing. Mowing the lawn is now looked on by some as a positive pastime activity. At the same time, the lawn uses valuable water reserves and in some areas damaging fertilisers, whilst mowing the lawn is seen as by some as ‘hard work.’
At the same time planting and maintaining a vegetable garden may, to some, be considered as hard work, but the benefits out weigh the work. Picking your own vegetables has become the ultimate “low food miles” activity, plus produce is fresher and from a known hopefully healthy source, your garden.
Be careful of the middle
Many retailers I have spoken to have told me that they are also finding changing shopping habits within a category. For example, cheap garden furniture and up-market garden furniture seems to be selling well. It is the products in the middle that are not selling. In the food retailing industry, the cheap supermarkets are seeing more consumers walking through their door, whilst up-market and farm-shop retailers are also seeing the benefits. It is often the middle of the road retailers who are finding it hard to attract consumers.
Become the nest provider
Retailers need to constantly re-assess what they are doing and what changes they need to implement. For those who are natural “nest” providers, such as those in home and garden improvement and entertainment, the future looks promising.
Even though retailing is becoming an increasingly challenging profession, retailers who are in the ‘nesting’ sector will find that more opportunities will exisit. Nesting retail networks or nesting retail clusters are becoming more popular. For example, garden stores located next to pet stores, furniture retailers and home theatre companies are creating destinations for the consumer. Plus, if you put in a coffee shop as well you have a days shopping experience for your nesters. More and more ‘out of town’ retail complexes are turning towards this type of retail destination.
What about the ‘non nesting’ retailers?
For those who are not natural “nest” providers they will need to be more entrepreneurial and develop convincing benefits to attract the customer.
Non nesting retailers will survive, but will have to consider a number of different strategies. Firstly, location, location, location. They either need to be located near weekly destination stores such as the local supermarket or position themselves next to nesting stores and build on the opportunity of the nesting store being the main traffic builder.
Marketing campaigns need to be innovative to attract the consumer to the location. In my own town, retailers are creating a community loyalty card. All local retailers who belong to the Chamber of Commerce are allowed to join in. The aim is to keep local consumers shopping locally, this is still a form of nesting retailing. Encouraging consumers to stay in their own neighbourhood.
Faith Popcorn could well have got it right, her reasons for cocooning did not include global warming and rising prices, but cocooning is what the consumer is doing once again.
Benefit from nesting
1. Identify the “nesting” products in your store and promote them.
2. Monitor the sales of products in the “middle”, they may become dead stock.
3. Brainstorm how you can sell products that are not naturally looked on as “nesting” products.
4. Monitor consumer habits closely and change your approach accordingly.
5. Sell the solutions, not the products.
John Stanley is an internationally recognised conference speaker and retail consultant. He has authored several successful marketing and retail books including the best seller Just About Everything a Retail Manager Needs to Know. John’s retail experience covers hands-on retailing in supermarkets, hardware stores, garden centres, farmers markets and drug stores. For more information on John Stanley and how he can help your business prosper and grow, visit his website www.johnstanley.cc
