Digital flyers have surged in popularity since the onset of lockdowns and are still effective revenue drivers, particularly for grocery.
That’s according to data from insights firm Caddle and discount app Reebee, presented at the Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing Conference last week. Among the finding were that 21.2% of respondents “always” buy a product after seeing them in store flyers, while 38.1% do so “very often.”
Caddle conducted a survey on 3,280 of its panel members in August.
Weekly active users for flyer apps have grown nearly 36% since 2019, with shoppers spending an average of 23% more time reading flyers since pre-lockdowns.
On its own platform, Reebee saying shoppers are using its app 12% more frequently over the same period, with retailers are running 11% more campaigns. That’s also adding more content to digital flyers: page counts have seen an increase of 7% over the last two years.
Approximately 64% of Canadians use flyers to plan where to shop, and it’s a particularly the case in Atlantic Canada, where that number reaches 76%. The lowest usage is in B.C., where 52% of shoppers use flyers for planning. However, brands need to take note that 35% of Atlantic Canadians prefer digital store flyers, compared with 45% of British Columbians.
Over the last six months, grocery retailers have seen the highest conversion (92%), followed by drug stores at 72% and home improvement retailers at 55%.
Among the other insights, for grocery, paper flyers have more reach, but digital has superior conversion: for example, digital sales conversion is 92%, compared with 80% for physical. The same holds true for drug stores (72% vs 57%) and home improvement (55% vs 45%).
Caddle recommends focusing on great deals and private label to drive value and options for shoppers in a high inflation environment, and to use flyers to drive loyalty programs. It also suggests that brands use specific brand names and specific product names and support online traffic with links and buttons and capitalize on search.
