This is gonna make people uncomfortable right? We should pro
bably tiptoe around the topic and go straight to the data… WRONG! You better get comfortable dear readers, because we’re jumping in with both feet first here. Tampons are fact of life for millions of women. MILLIONS. The Tampon category plays a very influential role amidst our category research. So show some respect for the almighty tampon.
Appealing to feminine hygiene shoppers is critical to your store’s success in this category. Understanding how the shopper interacts with tampons helps provide the ideal shopping experience and helps to drive traffic to your store.
To start with, let’s get the obvious out of the way. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that 78% of tampon purchases are “planned”. Over three quarters of those purchases are NOT promotionally driven and are considered to be “Regular” purchases. Shoppers do not want to run out of the product, and consider tampons to be a very incremental, regular purchase. But that’s not to say that customers are careless about their purchase decisions. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, shoppers are very brand and product loyal when it comes to Tampons.
This is where key understanding of the needs of your shopper come in. So let’s have a quick review: Women pre-plan to buy their tampons and are not overly influenced when it comes to promotion due to brand loyalty. So they are going to choose your store if they know they can get the brand they want, and the specific product of their choosing. This is where the disconnect happens. We took a sample from a common tampon manufacturer and looked at how their customer behaves when faced with having to choose a different product or brand. Guess what, over 25% of shoppers are going to walk away from the purchase all together, and the majority of those people are not going to wait for your store to restock their preference, instead, they will go to another store entirely to make their purchase.
It is critical to your success this high traffic-driving category that you keep a wide variety of brands and sizes/types in stock consistently. You’re losing easy basket sales by failing to deliver on the category that is bringing regular business to your store. Make tampons a priority and make sure your customers don’t choose the competitor who is doing it better than you are.
We have information like this and SO much more readily available and covering 130+ categories across North America. Feel free to reach out in the form below! We’d love to hear from you.
by Tyler Erickson
Digital Marketing Manager, Shopper Intelligence North America
