After the successful launch of its CoreRange website last year, grocery products distributor DCS Group has now added more advice and features to help retailers, wholesalers and cash & carry businesses grow their sales and profit.
Offering free impartial category advice, the website is designed specifically to help convenience retailers navigate their way through the personal care, babycare, healthcare and medicines, laundry and household, healthier snacking and pet care categories.
DCS noted that the website has seen usage increase significantly in recent months, with traffic last month having trebled in comparison to three months prior.
One wholesaler that DCS has been working with to help make sure their retailers are stocking the right range in store, is Parfetts. Its Head of Retail, Steve Moore, said: “We use CoreRange alongside Unitas Plan for Profit to help define the right range for new stores, giving our retailers the confidence that they can attract loyal shoppers and maximise their sales and profit.”
Improvements of the refreshed website include larger ‘XL’ planograms, helping retailers who have more shelf space to stock a core and extended product range in order to maximise their sales. New category advice pages and planograms for the healthier snacking and pet care categories are also now available.
DCS noted that product range recommendations are impartial and are based on the latest market data and shopper insights. They will be stocked at supplying wholesalers who can also use the recommendations to make sure they have all the best-selling products listed in depot and online.
Matt Stanton, Head of Insight at DCS Group, said: “We have been delighted with the response to CoreRange. We have built our business on the importance of data, and our aim was to make our insight more accessible to convenience store owners and wholesalers so they too can make well-informed decisions to capture lost shopper sales.
“As a convenience retailer, stocking the right products for a store’s customer base is crucial to growing sales. But with so many choices, picking the right SKUs isn’t always easy. We originally launched CoreRange because we wanted to help all UK convenience retailers stock the right range to help grow their sales. In the first 12 months, we have been blown away by the response to the website, proving when insight and data are easily accessible, retailers can grow their business.
“This helped us make the decision to improve and update our advice for 2024. The website now offers insights into more categories and provides a wider range of planograms. As the experts in the sector, we are well positioned to give retailers all the information they need to select a best-selling, efficient core range that is right for their store.
“The seven categories we champion are important and contain essential, high-value products that convenience stores should stock. They drive shoppers into stores, both for planned top-up shops and distress missions.
“When it comes to offering the right mix on shelf, brands are particularly important, as is own label in some categories. What we are doing, is interpreting the insight to help busy store owners make informed decisions.”
