First Impressions 2018-01-01 (1)

In theory, creating an innovative and unique shopping experience sounds like a snap. In reality it can be anything but. 

Having the latest products on hand is key; but so is offering a modern, well-lit, clean store that appeals to a wide range of shoppers. Making a great first impression—whether it is on the front porch (at the street/curb), vestibule or front end of the store—is also crucial. 

“To compete in today’s hyper-competitive marketplace, retailers need to hit on all cylinders with all aspects of retail and deliver a shopping experience that captures attention, informs, educates and connects with a wide range of shopper lifestyles,” says Harry Newton, director of sales and marketing for SPC Retail, based in Holly, Mich.  

That experience includes creating a more comfortable and safe experience for moms shopping with their young children. Often that starts with shopping carts. “Sometimes retailers don’t realize the impact equipment has on customer experience and loyalty,” says Paul Giampavolo, founder and president of Safe-Strap Co., based in Wharton, N.J. “Too often they focus on innovations like apps to appeal to consumers, but ignore staples of the retail environment—like shopping carts.”

Safe-Strap’s shopping cart seat belts feature innovative child-resistant buckles, custom coloring and printing, and are built to withstand the daily rigors of the shopping environment, notes Giampavolo.

The company also makes Safe-Dock, the first car seat docking station for shopping carts. Safe-Dock allows parents to safely shop with their infants, while keeping the cart’s basket free for more groceries, which benefits both parents and retailers. 

“Safe-Dock allows an individual parent to accomplish all the grocery shopping for a family while his or her infant is secured in the docking station, which makes the shopping trip a more pleasant and productive experience,” says Giampavolo. “When parents are not in a rush to leave the store—and have extra space for groceries—they will spend more money.”

Another shopping cart issue is the dreaded “wobbly wheel.” Sadly, most customers have actually come to expect that poor performing carts will be part of their shopping experience. This is not acceptable for officials at Bemis Retail Solutions, who note that the customers’ first and last impression of a store is often the shopping cart. The Sheboygan Falls, Wis., based-company has gone to great lengths to reinvent the cart, from the way it looks and how it performs to what is it made from. Bemis has even created a state of the art testing facility to ensure their carts do what they were created to do.

Bemis’ carts are made from recycled materials, have a lower energy and carbon footprint compared to steel carts and are fully recyclable at their end life. Bemis has improved child safety on its full-size cart by lowering the position of the seat and enclosing it so that a child’s arms and hands are better restrained inside the basket. 

The functionality of the carts has been enhanced, making them more user-friendly. Smart device holders as well as cup and flower holders are standard features. Hooks have also been included for the shopper’s reusable bags and the bottom tray includes a bonus basket to place heavy items such as a gallon of milk. 

Bemis’ convenience cart model was specifically designed for loading and unloading from the rear. Officials say the patent pending design encourages consumers to shop more, increasing rings at the register.

“Our all-plastic carts are truly revolutionary,” says Rick Stauff, director of sales and marketing for Bemis. “We went through great pains to eliminate or significantly reduce any of the issues traditionally made carts are prone to such as rusting, wheel issues, noise, nesting challenges, broken handles and bent frames.” Additionally, the memory in the plastic enables the cart to return to its original shape if hit.

Americana Companies is currently working on a new design for its shopping carts. Terry Swanson, president of the Omaha, Neb., based- company, says the newly designed plastic carts will feature 100 percent antimicrobial additives to protect customers from any growth of bacteria, mold or fungi for the life of the cart. That message can be printed on each shopping cart to bring customer awareness that their carts are cleaner and safer than the average cart.

In addition, the company’s Luv Seat child safety division recently designed an antimicrobial seat belt and new buckle mold. Retailers can print their store name and logo on the new seat belt, which passes the ASTM F2372-11a test for safety. Swanson says the company also worked with several designers to p

roduce a shopping cart wheel that will not flat spot for up to five years. “This will save retailers money and improve customer satisfaction,” he says. 

For 2016, Americana is introducing an antimicrobial handle to include cup holders, cellphone holder and a secure purse hook. The company plans to offer this on its most popular plastic AMP-17 shopping cart to start. 

A sustainable front-end

Officials at Brasco International, based in Madison Heights, Mich., say the emphasis on sustainable practices and quality are two key trends influencing front-end equipment today. In 2015, the company sold its first shopping cart corral with solar powered lighting packages to Clements Marketplace in Rhode Island. 

According to Jennifer Evans, director of sales and marketing at Brasco, every product is made in-house and Brasco can easily tailor its designs to match individual branding requests. “We help extend the store message to patrons and leave lasting impressions on their behalf. While customers typically do not know or care about who makes those nice cart corrals they do remember the store that always has dry carts with those quality corrals that they have not seen anywhere else,” says Evans.   

Brasco will soon debut more cart corral options with solar lighting packages. “The demand for off-the-grid safety lighting and green energy are not going away anytime soon,” says Evans. With that, Brasco has recently launched SolStop, a free standing solar powered push button light for patron waiting areas. The lighting 

solution is completely hands off and requires no installation other than anchoring it to the ground. Evans also sees a growing demand for wood grain aluminum designs being used for corrals, pergola entrances and benches. This look adds warmth and texture to parking lots, plus it also has a much longer lifespan, is maintenance free and less expensive than other material options, notes Evans. 

Of course not every shopper needs a cart as online shopping and in-store pick up is drastically changing the customer experience. Pan-Oston, based in Bowling Green, Ky., has introduced products to support a retailer’s vision of how this works with their customer base. Some of the company’s new products are the Pack ‘n Ship Smart Cart, PickupLocker and Vantage Mobile Checkstand—all of which provide a solution to help retailers that are offering store pickup, delivery or other options.  

“The front-end is shrinking, so the biggest concern is utilizing smaller retail spaces while keeping customers happy,” says Kendra Sewell, vice president of sales at Pan-Oston. “Retailers that are focusing on an omni-channel experience will appreciate our smaller checkout solutions and interactive kiosks for in-store shopping and our PickupLocker and mobile checkout for store pickup.”

Sewell says the company’s front-end solutions enable retailers to offer the best customer experience possible by increasing throughput and adding additional space for impulse buys with its FastLane X3, reducing “sweethearting” theft with its Vantage Queuing Lane and increasing retail square footage with its indoor/outdoor merchandisers. “Our solutions enable retailers to provide their preferred level of service to customers, from full-service bagging to self-checkout, or anywhere in between,” says Sewell. 

In terms of evaluating options for increasing revenue, industry observers say that by leveraging front-of-store space grocers can dramatically increase their bottom line. “In this competitive market, for grocery stores to stay front-and-center in the minds of shoppers it is imperative to differentiate their customer experience,” says Bob Gibson, vice president operations for Cummins Allison, based in Mount Prospect, Ill., “For example, offering the convenience of self-service coin redemption enables grocers to generate additional revenue within a small footprint, drawing in new customers and increasing the frequency of return visits.” 

Grocery stores, he notes, have two distinct advantages over other self-service coin redemption sites—longer hours and more frequent shopper visits. However, the success of this offering, says Gibson, is largely dependent upon the accuracy, speed and quality of the equipment, machine service and support offered.

With that in mind, he says, grocers should consider selecting a self-service coin machine that allows them to control the coin redemption fee for greater profitability. “By choosing the fastest, most reliable equipment, grocers can earn more revenue simply due to greater machine uptime,” he says, noting that programs that allow grocers to own, lease or have the equipment provided also impact profitability. 

Cummins Allison is offering a new alternative for grocers that wish to dual source their self-service coin kiosks or that are looking to improve the profitability of this oft-overlooked revenue source. The company is working with grocers to replace their existing equipment with faster, more reliable Money Machine 2 self-service coin machines and coin management programs. 

“Grocers are finding that with our equipment, their monthly revenue increases, due in part to the higher uptime and faster performance of the machines. Our self-service coin offerings will continue to provide grocers with a greater opportunity to generate revenue, as well as multiple options for product procurement,” says Gibson.

As competition for consumers’ food dollars increases and margins tighten it is more important than ever for retailers to not only grow basket size, but to also ensure they are the retailer of choice, says Dana Krug, vice president of sales – grocery, military and financial, for Outerwall, based in Bellevue, Wash. In addition to its Coinstar business, Outerwall’s offerings include Redbox and ecoATM, which offers consumers cash instantly for used cellphones, tablets and MP3 players.

“By taking control of the front-end—a space that is typically underutilized and often forgotten—and reallocating the space to create a dedicated area that offers coin counting and other services, retailers can create a one-stop shop for customers looking to save precious time and incrementally grow their profits,” says Krug. “Customizing the services in the front-end accomplishes one half of the equation by getting people in the door. A variety of front-end products and services take care of the other half of the equation—getting people to shop,” says Krug. He says 91 percent of people who use front-end services also shop in-store during the same trip. 

Refocusing efforts   

Displays are a key way to showcase merchandise, but can often be cumbersome to move around and complicated to set up. Recognizing this, officials at SPC Retail say its modular display products can be assembled quickly and without tools. “Many retailers worry about store level associates having the skill to assemble and disassemble our products, but once they experience and test our products they realize our displays are designed to be built in minutes,” says Newton. 

In today’s hyper-competitive marketplace, Newton says having the flexibility to transform a retail space into a new seasonal, event, promotional focal area or pop-up shop in a matter of minutes keeps the store fresh, exciting and inspiring for shoppers. “Pop-up displays are an ideal way to put product in high-traffic areas such as the checkout and power aisles or can be used to expand the selling space out to the front sidewalk or vestibule area,” says Newton. 

For officials at Brasco, getting retailers to understand that its corrals are more affordable than presumed is a challenge because most retailers assume their products cost two to three times as much as they actually do. While that can be taken as a compliment, it is also frustrating. “Our corrals are made from top-quality aluminum and stainless steel and are expected to last 15-plus years. When you invest in the right products, you should only have to invest once,” says Evans.