How Albertsons Is Reaching Price-Conscious Consumers
Grocers of all stripes are finding new and innovative ways to connect with today’s shoppers. Sean Barrett, chief marketing officer at Albertsons Cos., took to the stage at Path to Purchase Institute’s Retail Media Summit in Rosemont, Ill., last week to discuss how the retailer is responding to changing shopper behavior and utilizing digital commerce, convenience, retail media and more to make its own personalized connections.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused upheaval throughout the retail supply chain and forever changed shopper behavior, and Barrett believes those shifts have led to two sometimes opposing consumer dynamics that are at play today. The first of those is value-seeking.
“There's been lots of pressure on customers’ wallets, there's been persistent inflation, there's uncertainty in tariffs, what's to happen in the future, and consumer confidence, obviously, is at an all-time low,” Barrett explained. “That has caused shoppers to shop in more retail locations to get their full basket complete. They’re using multiple retailers, multiple retailer tools, deals and offers, and are often shopping for the best value across many retailers, but they don't want to do that.”
The opposing dynamic, Barrett said, is the fact that shoppers have gotten back to their normal, busy lives and have become time-starved and stretched too thin. So while customers want to seek value, they also don’t have time to do that.
“We're seeing a big conflict with shoppers there,” Barrett said. “We've done a lot to really try to alleviate those pressures and the conflicts that shoppers have, choosing between retailers and having to jump through hoops to stretch their basket.”
For Albertsons, retail media has played a major role in alleviating these pain points. According to Barrett, the grocer wants value-seeking, time-strapped consumers to be able to shop its stores and feel like they’ve made a good decision in doing so.
“Retail media, and commerce marketing in general, plays a really important role there to interrupt and lead that shopper with great value, great offerings, a great message that makes them feel like a smart shopper buying your brand on that shopping trip, as well as delivering them a personalized offer, for instance, so they can get great value on your product in the place that they prefer to shop, the place that they primarily shop.”
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When it comes to the value equation of “what you pay is what you get,” Barrett asserted that Albertsons is working closely with its brand partners and leveraging its scale to lower prices for shoppers. Relevant, personalized offers, as well as the grocer’s revamped loyalty program, are also making a positive impact on the “what you pay” side of that value equation.
Albertsons simplified its loyalty program last year, which made it easier for customers to realize value, and the company is now undertaking new partnerships to continue innovating in the space and delivering savings and value to its shoppers both inside and outside the store.
As for “what you get,” Barrett said Albertsons is leaning into its strengths, including its full assortment within stores, differentiated fresh departments, convenient meal options and more.
On convenience, Barrett explained that convenience-seeking shoppers over-index with Albertsons and tend to spend more with them than other retailers, and the company is doubling down and leaning into that strength to get ahead in the space. For Barrett, that innovation comes from digital capabilities and personalization.
“We have meal planning in our app, all the way through to giving people pre-made shopping carts, getting e-commerce set to just one click to add all of these things to your basket and place an order,” he explained. “But it's beyond that, in that the shopping journey is not just within our ecosystem. It starts well outside of our ecosystem and it doesn't end until you're putting food on the table in your home.”
To ensure the grocer remains part of the shopping journey throughout the entire cycle, Albertsons takes advantage of marketing opportunities in different channels, and also connects with its customers anywhere that they're planning eating occasions for the week. The grocer is also leveraging what it knows about specific customers to offer them helpful, relevant communication that encourages them to make a purchase.
Reaching those customers in a personal and organic way often comes down to simply being helpful, Barrett said. That can mean looking at a specific shopping journey and any touchpoints and ways that customers are thinking about food and feeding themselves and their families, and integrating its marketing there.
That inevitably leads to in-store retail media and marketing opportunities, which Barrett said Albertsons is actively pursuing.
“We've all done this with signage and marketing materials in store, but really that next frontier is to bring digital media capabilities and measurement and optimization into our in-store environments,” he said. “We still have the vast majority of our transactions happening in stores, so the value in that channel is incredibly high.”
Barrett also stressed the use of data to bring all of these tactics together, and of having it in one place to make it more actionable. Further, connecting data to all of its marketing channels allows Albertsons to be more personal and relevant, and thus drive convenience for customers every time it engages with them.
