Meeting shopper expectations means more than offering the freshest products at the lowest price – it means understanding them. That’s why Prunelle, has worked hard to develop the Trends and Perceptions culture within the Retail Business Services, this green and growing service for a 25years old company that used to serve exclusively the B2B sector, was a real challenge.

The retail team was established in 2018 and its members come from a variety of regions and backgrounds, communicating with our marketing team regularly.

Together they support the R&D Department, and it assists our peers and our whole organization by providing data that enables them to make better decisions surrounding customer demands. It’s all about how we innovate and progress our organization to the next level.

We call them ‘The Green & Growing Tribe,’ This team is very social media savvy and is paying attention to trends in consumer behavior especially the young generation influenced by social media bloggers and influencers – a group that’s purchasing power keeps growing.

The goal is to truly understand what trends are popular with consumers – and why.

We use understandings to influence product decisions.

Our process starts with an understanding of the consumer’s shopping attitudes and behaviors. We then use a variety of tools to understand social and cultural shifts and identify trends in product, average spending, we interpret these trends to align with the behaviors of consumers and to provide assortment and experience recommendations to the R&D and production teams.

Armed with that data, the R&D team can work to develop new items that shoppers will love.

“People no longer just want the cheapest product,” 

They want the right product. They want the product that resonates with them. We’re trying to bring in new products before anyone else can. These products are interesting items that the customers wouldn’t see at other places, and before they would see it with the competitors of our brands, so they enjoy coming into our shops.

The combination of financial data and knowledge of trends helps identify patterns with seasonal events, limited-time items, and other special offerings. It also helps the brands focus on what items will be successful where.

It’s all about the shopper experience, especially supermarket shopper, it takes him few seconds to be impressed by your display, and unbeatable baking smell and live the experience.

 Noting that someone in Beirut area, is going to make different shopping decisions than someone in Adma or Rayfoun, and our category allocations by the store will prove it.”

These insights have become especially important this year through the coronavirus pandemic, the economical situation, and the dollar rate fluctuation affecting all Lebanese shoppers from all regions and generations. 

With COVID-19, and prices variations things aren’t the same as they used to be, Customer expectations are changing. So how does our brand change its assortment so that those expectations are being met?

While COVID-19 has created a pause in normal life, leading people to consider cooking and developing their recipes at home a pleasure and a valuable experience, Prunelle was ready to offer a full variety of products ranging from American buns and rolls, to Authentic French Baguette and sourdough loaves passing by viennoiseries and last but not least a full selection of sweets to convince all foodies, home cookers and households.

And while the economical situation forced many families to reduce their shopping lists to keep surviving, Prunelle tried to promote some new budget-friendly items to avoid losing part of our loyal shoppers.

Grocery shopping is a necessity, but by creating a sense of understanding and adaptability, we hope that everything will back to normal soon.  

No matter what the future holds, our team will work hard to stay ahead of the curve and provide shoppers with the products that resonate with them.