Supermarkets That Understand Consumers Best Win

A handful of grocery retailers are very in tune with their customers. Coincidentally -- or not -- these retailers grew their market share by an average of 7 percent from 2015-16. The United Kingdom’s highest scorers included Aldi, Lidl and Tesco, while Trader Joe’s topped the most U.S. lists. The global top 25 percent of retailers shared attributes such as trust, transparency, ease and value. 

Dunnhumby’s "Global CCI Report" identifies which retailers are excelling in each nation, according to the seven pillars listed below: 

• Affinity
• Range and Service
• Promotions
• Price 
• Communications 
• Ease (of shopping)
• Rewards  

The report finds that the highest-scoring retailers have a focus on one pillar and performed extremely well against that positioning.  

Aldi scored highest across many parts of Europe on verticals such as ease and price. Both Lidl and Aldi win with shoppers on their specific value-focused position. In the United Kingdom, Tesco scored the highest on rewards, for its customer loyalty rewards program, whereas Trader Joe’s was found to excel on its product range and service. Trader Joe’s also wins in the United States with its focus on specialty needs, along with Costco, with which it shares top honors for brand affinity. 

Dunnhumby’s study also shows that in the United States, Asia and most of Europe, all of the highest-scoring retailers share an emphasis on meeting customer expectations with clearly marked prices, by developing trust and transparency, and stocking a relevant range of well-valued products, complete with an easy checkout process.   

These seven traits – or pillars, as the report identifies them – mentioned above constitute a great checklist for all supermarkets to use to rate themselves and their competitors. In doing so, they could gain a snapshot of just how well they are – or aren't --performing in shoppers' minds.