View the regular version of this page.
The Big Questions
Three speech bubbles highlighting valuable questions for stores. How do customers shop the Cold Vault? Where do shoppers go in your store? Should I add more coolers and where?
Illustration of how shoppers shop the Cold Vault: An arrow above all the coolers showing shoppers scan for their preferred category door showing step one, and a second arrow showing step two with the selection of beverage.
How shoppers shop the cold vault
Cooler doors act as a visual barrier, limiting horizontal viewing and causing shoppers to navigate in a two-step process:
STEP 1
As they approach the Cold Vault, shoppers evaluate and select their preferred category door.
STEP 2
Once a door is selected, shoppers browse and navigate their brand selection vertically within that section.
What do shoppers see?
How tall is the average shopper? For men, the average height is 5’9”, and 5’4” for women. This impacts where the most “visual heat” is; shelves at eye level tend to receive the most views.
Did you know...
Prominent visibility of landmark brands within each category works as a wayfinding device to aid in the door evaluation and selection process.
An image displaying the average heights of shoppers is next to a chart of the Percent Views by Shelf, starting from the top shelf down: Shelf 1 (16-18%), Shelf 2 (20-24%), Shelf 3 (18-20%), Shelf 4 (16-18%), Shelf 5 (5-7%), and Shelf 6 (5-7%).
Should I add more coolers?
The CR Heat Map illustrates how shoppers interact with your store—from how they flow through sections to where they are looking. This gives you the opportunity to make effective solutions for how your type of store flows.
Seeing the impact of incremental coolers (IC) in different placements:
- Incremental coolers lead to a 16-point organic increase of IC beverage purchases among convenience shoppers.
- Consider the front checkout destination for incremental placement.
- Although a high-traffic location, the food service counter contains ample variety for those seeking an IC beverage.
Convenience Recommendations
Based on the heat map's illustration of traffic, consider placing an incremental cooler at the checkout counter. This presents the greatest opportunity to drive visual standout and impulse purchase conversion.
Recommended placement:
Checkout counter location has the greatest potential—it does not compete with other beverage products located at food service, such as coffee & fountain drinks.
A visual of a Convenience Retail Heat Map showing the most foot traffic in the store away from the Cold Vault. In the example heat map, the Checkout counter had 44% visibility and 15% conversion, and the Foodservice counter had 32% visibility and 7% conversion.
Source: Open Shop Exercises Base: Convenience (Fuel-Forward Focused) - US (n=100)
Everyone wins with incremental coolers
It’s not just convenience that wins with incremental cooler placement. 3 in 4 grocery shoppers would be inspired to purchase an IC beverage from an incremental cooler, which creates additional spending from shoppers.
All retailers saw some incremental gain in IC beverage conversion with the incremental cooler additions. However, Convenience (Fuel-Forward Focused) and Grocery banners have the greatest impact potential.
Chart showing an exercise in Total Incremental Cooler Beverage Purchase Conversion. For Convenience - Open Shop 1: Current Only (58%), Open Shop 2: Current + Incremental (74%), which reflected a +16pts change. For Grocery - Open Shop 1: Current Only (38%), Open Shop 2: Current + Incremental (51%), which reflected a +12pts change. For Mass Retail - Open Shop 1: Current Only (30%), Open Shop 2: Current + Incremental (36%), which reflected a +7pts change. For Drug - Open Shop 1: Current Only (58%), Open Shop 2: Current + Incremental (61%), which reflected a +3pts change. For Dollar - Open Shop 1: Current Only (45%), Open Shop 2: Current + Incremental (47%), which reflected a +2pts change.
Source: Open Shop Exercises Base: Convenience (Fuel-Forward Focused) - US (n=100); Grocery - US (n=99); Mass Retail - US (n=88); Drug - US (n=100); Dollar - US (n=100)
Key insights to utilize in your store
How shoppers shop the Cold Vault
Shoppers tend to view coolers in a distinct two-step process:
- Selecting door of preference
- Navigating brand selection vertically within selected door, with a downward gaze
From there, shoppers quickly see things within their direct line of vision, which means high visual zones are slightly lower than eye level.
Consider:
Continue to maintain segment blocking per door (SSD, water, sport, etc.) to mirror the first step in shopper navigation behavior.
Where possible, consider vertical brand blocking to bring brands into strike zones and capitalize on visibility opportunities.
Where your shoppers go in your store
Utilizing a Heat Map can give better insight into where the most traffic is and where adding incremental coolers makes the most sense.
Consider:
In Convenience, the checkout counter location has the greatest potential—it does not compete with other beverage products located at food service, such as coffee & fountain drinks.
Adding a cooler near the checkout will lead to growth.
WANT TO SEE MORE?
Discover more through the lens in the articles below.
