Marketing

How to create a 'post register zone' retail strategy

The 'post register zone' is the first thing shoppers see and the last. It can make or break a shopper’s perception of your store, and should be managed diligently and efficiently.

Image courtesy of iStock.

April 5, 2021 by Maria Mullen — Strategic Advisor, THinc Partners

What do you call the front wall of a retail store? That area beyond the register that extends to the exterior of the building that has traditionally been a catch all for everything from center store overstock merchandising to kiosk services, customer service desks, gum dispensers, free newspapers and benches.

For simplicity sake, let's call it the PRZ — the "post register zone." And while every other millimeter of a store is managed diligently for productivity and efficiency, the PRZ is often not. It is not uncommon for retailers to not know how many transactions each kiosk is doing per month, their profit per square foot per machine, if a kiosk is top line sales and/or bottom line profit contributor, how the total PRZ is performing for them versus the prior year, how the balance of the store benefits from PRZ services, and what to do to optimize the space for increased productivity.

And the automated retail industry is not making it easy for a retailer to answer these questions. Reporting is haphazard and payment terms and methods vary greatly. A retailer may get a check once a quarter for one service without any corresponding report, while a service at the other end of the spectrum can provide reporting by day part.

Well, no matter what your store format or kiosk mix, the PRZ is a very valuable area of the store that deserves your attention. It is the first thing your shoppers see and the last. It can make or break a shopper's perception of your store, even if the balance of their trip has been perfect.

Facts to consider

• PRZ services are largely traffic driving destination services. Eight in 10 shoppers plan their store trip around a particular PRZ service, and consumers will go elsewhere if the service they need is not available, according to an Outerwall 2015 CatMan study.
• PRZ services enhance center store sales. Nine in 10 service users combine the PRZ service trip with a shopping trip, according to the study. And many services generate cash which can then be used in the store.
• Well-run PRZs create increased store loyalty. Once a consumer has found a place that meets all their service needs, they return again and again.

Getting the most out of your PRZ starts with creating an objective for that area of the store, and then fleshing out the strategies that will help you achieve that objective. This doesn't have to be a long arduous endeavor. Even small changes can produce measurable results.

On retailer's experience

For example, one West Coast grocery retailer set their objective to: "Make the PRZ an attractive destination for their shoppers, while generating double digit profit growth and increased store loyalty."

They then chose these strategies to help them achieve that objective:

• Leverage PRZ service assortment to drive store trips. For this one, they worked with PRZ vendors to understand their consumer targets and then chose the services that best matched their store demographics and shopper behavior.
• Optimize adjacencies (which services sit next to each other) to increase service cross-usage. Here, they hired a third party to better understand usage behavior in the PRZ and found that most consumers visited the area multiple times a month but only used one service on each visit. So, they tested different adjacencies based on the research results and data and made some layout shifts to ensure specific kiosks were next to each other.
• Improve layout and visual appeal to catch consumer attention and interest. This retailer found out that having a cluttered, messy, difficult to navigate PRZ actually negatively impacted their shoppers' perception of the store. In addition, shoppers often discovered new PRZ services in store. So, visual appeal within a well-organized PRZ was critical.
• Organize the services in alignment with shopper behavior. Lastly, they learned that some PRZ services are used when a shopper enters a store, and some are used when a shopper exits. Some are used once a month, others once a week. The flow of kiosks needed to reflect all this.

Just like this retailer, once you've made these strategic choices about what to focus on as you pursue your objective, you can identify your data gaps, assign appropriate ownership of the space, seek expert help to do this work (if needed), and get on the path to improved total store productivity.

About Maria Mullen

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