DS Smith explores consumers’ response to Retail Ready Packaging

For the project, passing shoppers will be kitted out with wireless HD glasses which will monitor their eyes’ response to products as they go round the supermarket.

DS Smith Packaging is leading the project, working with eyetracker, a European research company. The two are currently seeking manufacturers and retailers to commission research.

First of a kind research​

They say this will be the first research of its kind into Retail Ready Packaging, packaging where products stay in a case or merchandising throughout the supply chain and onto the shelf, saving the retailer from having to unload single units.

The planned trials follow a pilot at DS Smith Packaging’s Impact and Innovation Centre in Ely, Cambridgeshire.

The 20 participants in that two day trail shopped using two fixtures, each of which was dressed with and without Retail Ready Packaging.

Data from these tests, which took place at the end of last year, suggested that shoppers found their first choice products from a shopping list more than 10% quicker when those products were displayed in retail ready packaging.

All shoppers in the trial were wearing eyetracker’s wireless HD glasses which track eye movements and record the results for analysis.

The aim of next set of trials is to help DS Smith Packaging’s customers understand how to make the best use of their retail ready packaging in order to make their products stand out against competitors on the supermarket shelf, enabling them to sell more whilst reducing cost and waste.

Shopper vision​

Alan Potts, insight director at DS Smith Packaging, said: “It is still early days, but being able to look at retail ready packaging through the eyes of the shopper is giving us some surprising results​.”

Early signs were that that RRP can help products stand out on the shelf “during the increasingly complex shopper journey​,” he added.

Iain Janes, MD at eyetracker, told FoodProductionDaily.com that after going round a retail environment wearing eyetracker glasses shoppers would then be interviewed about their shopping trip.

He commented: “This gives us both the whats and the whys. Getting a product seen can make the difference between success or failure. Over the coming months we will help DS Smith Packaging’s customers find more value than ever from their retail ready packaging​.”