The Grocery Retail sector has not improved at all compared to last year, thus dropping to 7th place in sector comparison. The industry is now around 3% below market average, aside from the Time and Effort pillar and price-quality ratio, where the results are better. Among those who made the top 100 are supermarkets (Globus, Lidl, Kaufland), a mini-market (Marks and Spencer food), and an online food store (Rohlík.cz).
Customers are not happy when chains decide to completely reorganize the aisles in their stores, when a promotion they found in a flyer is not valid, or when they must wait in a long line at the checkout. The winner of the sector, Rohlík. cz, chooses a personal approach and tries to empathize with the client’s needs. The brand is a number one in the Personalization pillar, with the total sector results exactly corresponding to the ranking in this pillar. The online store also ranked highly in Empathy (7.3 points), taking 6th place in the entire study.
Marks and Spencer food, a premium brand, is quite successful in this metric, too. It has a unique position in the sector, because food is secondary, complementing the brand’s main products – clothes. Small and easy to navigate M&S stores are doing exceptionally well in the Time and Effort pillar. But, when it comes to the perceived price-quality ratio, the brand is far behind the competitors.
According to the KPMG study on shopping habits from 2018, Czech people do buy more and more fresh produce on the internet, not just frozen goods, but when it comes to frequency, they still use online shopping only now and then. Almost half of the customers only buy groceries online once a month or less often. This is supported by the results in the Integrity pillar that represents the level of trust customers have in a brand. Traditional supermarkets won this one, with Rohlík.cz coming in third, losing to Globus and Lidl. Speaking of Lidl – it also did great on the price-quality ratio, rising from the 27th spot all the way up to 11th, which is a great result. The brand is also known for its skilful use of topics popular on the market. Most recently, the brand decided to gradually stop selling eggs that come from cage farming, while in the past, their recruiting campaign ignited a debate on the salaries of civil servants.
“An amazing wholesale store with a huge selection of products at great prices... I was very happy with the number of open checkout counters – we didn’t have to wait at all, and that is quite rare these days.” (Globus)
“I like shopping here very much. They always keep enough discounted items in stock, the aisles are easy to navigate, and the quality of fresh produce is superb.” (Kaufland)
“I submitted a warranty return through their online store. They were very helpful and sent me a replacement piece with a credit note, at their expense. I have never had any issues with the company – on the contrary, I only have words of praise.” (Lidl)