Sainsbury’s: ‘Nectar data makes our c-stores stronger than rivals’
Sainsbury’s believes Nectar data will set it above the competition in the increasingly competitive convenience market, as it will help shape marketing, product and store performance.
Speaking at the IGD Convenience conference yesterday (9 November) Helen Buck, convenience director at Sainsbury’s, says that by using Nectar data, the retailer can understand customers and respond quickly in a way that other convenience retailers can’t.
She said: “There is lots of competition going on, we know that everyone is trying to up their game and watching Morrisons and Waitrose to see what they’re doing. We are confident that we have some elements in our armoury that the others don’t.
“We’re not complacent, but we’re confident that we will retain a strong place in the UK convenience market.”
Sainsbury’s spends £150m a year on trying to understand its customers’ behaviour and product and store performance through Nectar data and uses it to respond through local marketing, product development and cross promoting.
The supermarket, which currently operates around 400 c-stores, is opening 1 to 2 convenience outlets each week and says its £1bn small format division is growing at twice the rate of the rest of the business, which reported 1.9% like for like sales growth in the first half of the year.
The IGD expects the convenience market to grow to £42.2bn in the next five years.
