Let There Be Lighters
Following a few best practices can help grocers ignite GM sales.
The lighter category has the potential to help retailers boost profits within the general merchandise department of the store. But for supermarket operators to take better advantage of the opportunity that this category offers, they have to pay a lot more attention to it.
Clearly, supermarkets are currently losing the battle for share in both the pocket lighter and multipurpose lighter segments of the category. The advantage, especially within the pocket lighter segment, clearly goes to convenience stores, which control about half of all pocket lighter sales in the United States, because of their ability to merchandise bulk lighters immediately in front of customers at the point of sale.
Due to the nature of their operations, supermarkets can't easily merchandise pocket lighters in bulk using the same techniques as convenience stores. However, there are a number of things that can be done to maximize lighter sales through supermarkets. These best practices can help bring lighters out from behind glass doors, or the obscurity of in-aisle merchandising at some location where even the store staff has a hard time finding them.
“To optimize sales and generate strong profits, pocket lighters should be merchandised at the front end of the store, where high traffic creates high visibility,” says Brad Adamson, brand manager-pocket lighter marketing for Shelton, Conn.-based Bic Consumer Products. “Pocket lighters are leading sales- and profit-generating items in a small footprint.”
A Pocketful of Profits
What makes lighters so appealing as a checkout item is that they have the unique advantage of shoppers looking to buy these items, combined with a high impulse purchase rate — this is the formula that has aided convenience stores for years. High margins make front end lighter sales more attractive than sales of candy or gum. Additionally, pocket lighters' small footprint makes it easy for retailers to merchandise an assortment of them in the tight confines of the checkstand area.
Keying into consumer demographics when building a lighter planogram can aid supermarkets in gaining share of sales in the category. Female shoppers are an extremely important part of the audience for supermarkets, since they're less likely to shop at convenience stores than their male counterparts. Manufacturers such as Bic offer designs geared to many different groups, including Hispanic shoppers, veterans, sports fans and aficionados of different genres of popular music.
Multipurpose Seasonality
When it comes to multipurpose lighters, supermarkets are less worried about competition from convenience stores and more concerned with their mass and drug chain rivals, as well as home and hardware dealers. Multipurpose lighters give supermarkets one advantage that pocket lighters don't — they can naturally be cross-merchandised and cross-promoted with many different products.
“For multipurpose lighters, placement in secondary locations (candle, barbeque/fire log sections) is key to boosting sales and profitability,” says Sherri Gasparon, Bic's brand manager-lighter marketing. “Bic runs three national FSIs in May, August and November that help drive sales around barbeque, tailgate and holiday seasons. Retailers should take advantage of the seasonality of the business by stocking up at these peak times of the year (e.g., Memorial Day, Fourth of July, tailgate and holiday) and by merchandising them with other seasonal items.”
While design in pocket lighters often refers to the decoration on the lighter, it has a different connotation for multipurpose items. Design advances in multipurpose lighters are often of the functional type; that is, they offer consumers some improvement in the way the lighter performs. Retailers should take advantage of any technological design advances by carrying the most innovative multipurpose lighters for their customers to purchase.
Bic is introducing a multipurpose Long Reach Lighter. According to Gasparon, this new item has an extended wand to get to hard-to-reach places, and is especially geared to the avid barbeque/candle/fireplace consumer.