There were fewer deals this month as supermarkets switched their focus to offering bigger savings on costlier items, reports James Ball
Having chugged along happily for months, it appears the engine driving growth in the number of promotions is starting to stutter.
While Premier Foods stated in its update this week that it was promoting about 10% more than this time last year, growth in promotions across the market has stalled with the number of offers at Morrisons and Tesco down on last month.
The number of deals at Tesco fell 3% to 1,462 [Promo Dynamic 4w/e 7 August 2009], while the number of promotions at Morrisons dropped 7.9% to 1,743 though the retailer still ran more promotions than the other major multiples.
Supermarkets have shifted their promotional activity to higher-value and discretionary items, according to promotional consultants Assosia. Alcohol extended its lead as most-promoted category, with more than 1,400 deals across the five retailers. The second-placed category, impulse, trailed this by 150 offers. The shift in focus to premium products was revealed by higher average pre-promotion prices and matched by a fall in the number of offers on cheaper items. Average savings increased in almost all of the retailers, which suggests that while the products on offer might be more expensive, the discounts are steeper.
Asda was the exception, with its typical saving falling 1.4 percentage points month-on-month to 28%, c0mpared with Waitrose's 32%. Asda did, however, have lower average starting prices than its rivals.
The promotional trend towards own-label products continued. Asda's 80:20 brand to own-label ratio showed a move of 13 points towards own label compared with this time last year, when 93% of its promotions were branded.
"Supermarkets are trying to push summer on to their shoppers," said Assosia MD Kay Staniland. "The most obvious manifestation of this is in own-label promotions, where fresh produce, meat, fish & poultry and chilled foods deals have continued to dominate."
Fresh produce was the top-promoted own-label category, making up more than a quarter of all own-label deals.
Having chugged along happily for months, it appears the engine driving growth in the number of promotions is starting to stutter.
While Premier Foods stated in its update this week that it was promoting about 10% more than this time last year, growth in promotions across the market has stalled with the number of offers at Morrisons and Tesco down on last month.
The number of deals at Tesco fell 3% to 1,462 [Promo Dynamic 4w/e 7 August 2009], while the number of promotions at Morrisons dropped 7.9% to 1,743 though the retailer still ran more promotions than the other major multiples.
Supermarkets have shifted their promotional activity to higher-value and discretionary items, according to promotional consultants Assosia. Alcohol extended its lead as most-promoted category, with more than 1,400 deals across the five retailers. The second-placed category, impulse, trailed this by 150 offers. The shift in focus to premium products was revealed by higher average pre-promotion prices and matched by a fall in the number of offers on cheaper items. Average savings increased in almost all of the retailers, which suggests that while the products on offer might be more expensive, the discounts are steeper.
Asda was the exception, with its typical saving falling 1.4 percentage points month-on-month to 28%, c0mpared with Waitrose's 32%. Asda did, however, have lower average starting prices than its rivals.
The promotional trend towards own-label products continued. Asda's 80:20 brand to own-label ratio showed a move of 13 points towards own label compared with this time last year, when 93% of its promotions were branded.
"Supermarkets are trying to push summer on to their shoppers," said Assosia MD Kay Staniland. "The most obvious manifestation of this is in own-label promotions, where fresh produce, meat, fish & poultry and chilled foods deals have continued to dominate."
Fresh produce was the top-promoted own-label category, making up more than a quarter of all own-label deals.
1 Readers' comment