The Secret to Winning In-Store: Why Testing Marketing Assets Matters

In the CPG world, where over 90% of sales happen in-store and most purchasing decisions are made on the spot, the importance of in-store marketing can't be overstated.

Your in-store marketing assets - like displays, POS materials, packaging, and digital retail media ads (screens), aren't just accessories - they're critical touchpoints that can make or break a sale. That's why leading CPG brands invest tens or even hundreds of millions into in-store marketing.

But spending big isn't enough*.

More than 50% of in-store campaigns deliver low or negative ROI

To maximize ROI, it's crucial to test in-store assets before they hit the market. This often-overlooked step is integral to any successful shopper marketing strategy.

?? The logic behind testing is simple: pre-test two or more versions of your marketing materials before they go live to determine which one resonates best with your shoppers. You can also test only one - to check if it surpasses the "norm".

While testing is standard practice in brand marketing and e-commerce - where it consistently delivers the highest ROI - in-store marketing still lags behind.

?? In-store assets are rarely, if ever, tested before launch*. The reasons often boil down to:

1. Tight deadlines for signing off something that's going to be in stores for only a couple of weeks
2. Procurement closely monitors this activity, often viewing it as a cost rather than an investment.
3. It's just bloody hard - physical environments are difficult to experiment in

?? Luckily for you, dear Shopper Marketer, thanks to advances in technology and data availability, the barriers to testing are no more.

Why Test In-store Assets?

Here’s why incorporating testing into your planning process is not just beneficial but essential:

?? Stand Out and Connect with the Shopper

?? Present Compelling Arguments to Your Retail Partners

?? Save Time & Effort

1. Stand Out and Connect with the Shopper

The way people process information in a retail environment is vastly different from other settings. A typical supermarket stocks more than 30.000 products, and is increasingly becoming cluttered with digital screens, branded shelves and tons of promotions.

Shopnosis data shows that a typical shopper:

• Spends 15 minutes in a supermarket
• 12 minutes are reserved for walking around and waiting at counters
• 3 minutes for selecting and engaging with products

A product category might receive just 15 seconds of consideration!

Some categories get more time, others less, but either way, you're facing a mighty difficult challenge of standing out and connecting with the shopper.

To make things more complicated, the shopper is not always the consumer, and the shopper mindset is very different from the consumer mindset.

Research from the Path to Purchase Institute shows that making your shopper marketing campaign relevant for shoppers increases the ROI by +18%

To be relevant, you must stand out and connect with the shopper, in their environment and on their terms.

?? Your in-store creative is your superpower; use it to connect with shoppers.

2. Present Compelling Arguments to Your Retail Partners

One of the main challenges for shopper marketers is their limited control over the channel.

Unlike traditional media, where you purchase space and determine the content, in-store marketing requires collaboration with the retailer to align on the creative execution.

If your sales also involve distributors, you’ll need compelling data to motivate them to support your new initiative.

?? Having testing data that demonstrates the effectiveness of your in-store assets is a powerful tool when negotiating with retail partners.

3. Save Time and Effort

Have you ever found yourself in long, passionate debates with your boss when it’s time to sign off a creative?

Or received a design from a brand team that looks great on social media but just doesn’t work for in-store displays?

Or when the creative agency sends the seventh iteration, buried in what seems like an endless email thread?

Many shopper marketers face these challenges daily. Testing can dramatically reduce these back-and-forths. Feedback from Shopnosis clients shows that testing can cut down the back-and-forth by 3 to 5 times.

?? Instead of spending hours in meetings and on emails, let data drive decisions and streamline the approval process.

To Recap

Testing your in-store assets is one of the most straightforward ways to ensure maximum ROI on your shopper marketing efforts. It guarantees that your messaging resonates with shoppers, provides data to convince retail partners, and saves you countless hours of meetings and revisions.

?? Don't miss my next article, where I'll dive into the best practices and cutting-edge options for testing in-store assets in 2025. Make sure to follow me: Uros Berisavljevic

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#retailmarketing #shoppermarketing #shopperinsights #retailinsights

*Several sources quote low or negative ROI for majority of trade promotions. E.g. https://www.kantar.com/Inspiration/Retail/Trade-Promotion-Management-and-ROI-Work-hard-for-the-money

*An exception to this is product packaging - it's relatively common to test packaging.