CASE STUDY

HOW DO PEOPLE BUY THEIR MEAT?

At a Middle Eastern grocer, a Retailigence POC was commissioned to find out the customer decision tree followed by customers when they buy meat.

Advised by external consultants experienced in the developed markets of Europe, the business had set up the CDT as follows:

PROTEIN

What meat has the customer come to buy? Beef, Chicken, or Lamb - then...

CUT

Does the customer want steak, chops, or mince? - then...

PRICE BAND

Premium, Regular, Value

This was reflected in the way the product was merchandised in the stores and was generally accepted as common-sense.

However, Retailigence machine learning algorithms, which go through customer baskets and convert each basket to a mathematical vector, seemed to suggest that for meats, customers tended to shop by brand.

Quite understandably, this was dismissed by the leadership as nonsense. Nevertheless, they agreed to conduct a customer survey among the customers visiting the store in Red Sea Mall, Jeddah.

Much to everyone's surprise, most customers said that if the beef of their brand was not available, they would switch to chicken of the same brand. This view was supported by several store staff members who also confirmed that the brand they trust for buying meat is non-negotiable.

The above demonstrates that sometimes the most compelling conventional wisdom can be found to be out of date or out of context.

To see how a revised assortment and display brands rather than protein helped increase sales, please get in touch.