Retailers need to ask themselves how they meet the needs of shoppers who have a new outlook on food, work and daily life, says SPINS’ senior VP of retail
Dawn Valandingham is a contributor to Supermarket News and senior vice president of retail at SPINS, a leader in data and retailer solutions for the natural products industry. She leads the SPINS Retail strategy, which includes innovative tactics around recruitment and retention of retail partners. Valandingham is also responsible for adding strategic partners that strengthen the SPINS ecosystem and reinforce its commitment to expanding and supporting the natural products industry.
We are at an exciting and somewhat perplexing moment: we’re all tiptoeing back into so-called normal life after an abnormal year. We’re all eager to look ahead, but we can’t escape the changes that are already popping up, whether that’s more flexible work-from-home policies or lingering concerns about health and wellness.
How are retailers supposed to plan ahead with one foot in the past and one in the uncertain future? To find out, we dug through a year’s worth of data from the SPINS Natural Enhanced Channel and Conventional Multioutlet Channel (powered by IRi), beginning with the start of restrictions last spring and ending 52 weeks later.
Here are five lessons we learned that retailers should factor into their strategy.
