In his latest media appearance, ShopGrok’s founder and CEO Aaron Cowper spoke with the Sydney Morning Herald about Woolworths Group’s recent move to convert some of its full-sized supermarkets into Metro-branded convenience stores.
The proportion of Woolworths Metro stores has doubled in the past five years, making up 8.2 percent of all Woolworths stores, compared with 3.2 per cent in 2018.
The most recent ABS Consumer Price Index shows food prices have increased by 7.5 per cent in the last year to June. Amid concerns from residents about this growing cost of living, the article investigates the potential impact on price and range for customers of Woolworths supermarkets undergoing conversion in Balmain and Alexandria.
Aaron told journalists that Woolworths was likely trying to compete with convenience stores in the area, such as 7/11s and smaller IGAs.
“They’d be trying to increase profitability where they can, but it also has to do with the size of the store and range,” he said.
Aaron also stressed Woolworths would be in constant negotiations with suppliers to try to keep prices low: “It’s a constant balancing act and if they were to push prices too high, it would come back to bite them. Once you lose customer trust, you lose it quickly, and it’s hard to regain it.”
As ShopGrok knows well, achieving competitive pricing and effective promotions across a compelling product range is a feat in itself. However, doing so whilst also maintaining healthy sales margins and revenue growth is a huge challenge that requires deep insights in real-time about what’s happening in a particular market.
You can read the full article here.
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