Unique Assortment as a Key Factor of Local Food Retail’s Competitiveness Increase

Abstract

The struggle for a customer between federal and local retailers is becoming more and more relevant in connection with the large-scale consolidation of the market. The expansion of federal players is growing, and local retail needs not only to survive in the new conditions, but also to improve the efficiency of the business. Local retail has opportunities to increase profitability and attract traffic to stores, one of them is unique assortment development as a tool for diversification and protection from competitors, making unique projects for which a loyal customer can repeatedly return to a particular store.

The consumer is becoming more principled and influential, and this is forcing grocery retailers to invest more and more in improving consumer’s experience. A modern consumer leads an active social life, monitors his/her health, and wants to get the most useful and high-quality product at the lowest financial and time costs.

In this regard, in addition to a trading function, retailers start realizing another one – an educational function. Retail begins to «teach» customers by displaying products with “clean labels”, the best products from different parts of the world, where unique recipes have been formed for decades, on the shelves. To a large extent, the quality of what the consumer eats depends on retail today, and the customer becomes loyal and returns for his/her “unique” favorites after learning about new products and opportunities.

This article examines the system of unique assortment creating using such tools as importing products, producing goods under private labels and managing categories through the prism of meeting key needs of customers on the materials of the local food retailer “Semya” (Perm, Russia).