Understanding beer shoppers

What do we know about beer shoppers and how do they differ from grocery shoppers? And what can grocers do with this info?

These are questions Lucros Partners – Shopper Intelligence set out to answer in its survey of more than 104,000 grocery shoppers and 6,000 beer shoppers.

Here’s what they found:

• Beer shoppers tend to be younger (42% of beer shoppers are millennials versus 19% for grocery overall) and male (52% versus 38% for grocery in general).

• Female beer shoppers gravitate to light brews while males tend toward the imports.

• Shoppers view the beer category in terms of six distinct segments: craft, imported, core premium, core light, domestic specialty and value. And shopper behaviour varies widely between segments; for instance, in some segments shoppers like to browse and are open to increasing what they spend on the trip, while in others it’s a grab-and-go situation and they already have their particular product in mind when they enter the store. Retailers need to manage each differently. With the former, they need to engage the shopper at shelf, and the latter requires limited out of stocks and making shopping effortless

• When it comes to the overall satisfaction of the shop, just 43% of beer shoppers say they are satisfied, compared to 55% for grocery shoppers. While grocery shoppers are looking for things like freshness, price and quality, beer shoppers want availability of brands and easy-to-find sections. “Of the 6,000 beer shoppers, the majority are looking for improvements in the section layout,” says Kelly McGinnis, president of Lucros Partners – Shopper Intelligence. “This represents a significant opportunity as layout is more important than price for the beer shopper.”

This article appeared in Canadian Grocer’s March/April 2018 issue.