Magazines Archives - 2009 November

Asian shoppers focus on value buys, says study
Story 11 - News

Over 70% of shoppers in Asia have become more “price sensitive” as compared to 2007, as the drop in consumer confidence inevitably affected their buying decisions, said Nielsen in its latest study, Nielsen Asia Pacific Retail and Shopper Trends 2009 Report.

“Value has become the main focus for Asian shoppers, partly driven by the economic situation and partly as a result of increased retailer activity focused around price and promotions,” Peter
Gale, managing director of Nielsen Retail Services in Asia Pacific, noted in the study.

He added that in markets like Malaysia, China and Thailand, where hypermarket formats are among the strongest trade channels, promotions remain important for shoppers. In addition, shoppers are less willing to try new items, preferring to stick with their favourite brands, he continued.

The study noted that while the current trend of shoppers preferring to dine in has affected some industries adversely, grocery retailers have benefited as a result, with markets in India, China
and Vietnam experiencing volume growth in their grocery segment over the past year, with only Taiwan seeing a 7% drop in sales.

Asia also saw the growth of minimarts and small supermarket stores increase by 17% last year, with Indonesia leading the way with over 1,500 new store openings in 2008, accounting for over
16% of total packaged grocery sales.

Meanwhile, in China, store numbers grew by 22% to over 70,000 stores last year, while in South Korea, Nielsen noted that hypermarket retailers, such as Samsung Tesco, are starting to expand into smaller supermarkets, more commonly known as “Super Supermarkets” (SSM). Over 150 SSM Homeplus Express stores can be found in the country, with local discount store group, E-mart, looking to open between 30 and 40 E-mart Everyday stores.

The study concluded that the challenge for Asian retailers is to “convince shoppers to trust their own label brands, outside of the basic commodity food and household categories”. “Shoppers’ attitudes towards retail brands are significantly more negative in Asia compared to more developed markets of
Australia and New Zealand … Retailers will need to invest more in marketing their own branded products to drive trial and ensure that quality meets shoppers’ expectations to build repeat purchasing,”
it maintained.

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