The 2022 world cup has officially kicked off and with it, a whirlwind is about to hit the retail industry, impacting brand sales in a way that we’ve never seen before in the run-up to Christmas.
Q4 and the Christmas season are traditionally some of the busiest times of the year for brands in a retail environment, but with the Qatar World Cup added into the mix, this is set to be one of the busiest periods for retail in recent history.
However, with a cost-of-living crisis currently hitting the UK, customer spending may well be kept to a minimum where possible.
With a significant cultural event and the world’s largest sporting spectacle to plan for, don’t be surprised to see consumers searching for low-cost alternatives to their favourite brands – cost is going to be one of the biggest factors to consider and promotions may well be your biggest route to sales in the coming months.
To learn more about how brands can tackle the challenges they’re facing this winter, or to learn more about the predicted impact that the World Cup will have on brand sales this Christmas, carry on reading below…
Brand sales at Christmas: The expected trends
If you’re a brand, your sales will be impacted by the shift in demand over the Christmas period.
The Christmas season generates a massive rise in retail activity across all sectors. Whether it’s gifts for loved ones, food and drinks for hosting, or shoppers looking to capitalise on the latest offers and new products, there are many reasons for buying activity to increase.
In line with the usual demand shifts, we expect to see demand for party consumables such as multipack cans of alcohol and soft drinks, nuts and nibbles, and sharing platter food increase considerably.
And with more consumers choosing to watch the World Cup at home this year than at bars or events spaces, either due to cost, weather, or social clashes, we’d expect these items to be essential in the retail space.
Of course, this rise in demand also leads to an increase in competition, with each brand looking to fight for shelf space, maximise visibility, and ensure that they’re the most enticing option for their audience.
To combat this and ensure that your brand is positioned effectively in the retail environment this winter, it’s vital to ensure that you’re utilising innovative predictive technology to boost availability and monitor stock levels for key product lines.
Here at Tactical Solutions, we’re driven by our mission to support brands in maximising their sales in the retail space.
When you’re working with our experts, you know that you’re in the right hands – we’ll utilise our Image Recognition technology to provide key insights into your shop floor availability and stock levels, ensuring that you can meet demand and keep your customers satisfied.
Get in touch with our expert team today to learn more about how we can help you to optimise your brand strategy to achieve the maximum level of retail sales throughout this busy Q4 period.
How brands can react to these concurrent events
The success of a brand over the next couple of months will be heavily reliant on its ability to react to demand, offer customers enticing purchase incentives, and account for customer emotions and the behaviour shifts that these may cause.
Our experts have pinpointed some of the key features that consumers will likely be looking for this winter, looking to enhance convenience during their shopping experience whilst also trying to save costs during one of the most expensive periods of the year.
Here are the 3 key factors that we’d recommend focusing on to ensure that you’re providing the best possible experience to the consumers considering purchasing your products:
Event-specific packaging
Consumers love to be immersed in events – whether it’s Christmas, Eurovision, the Olympics, or the World Cup.
They’re cultural events that everyone gets involved with, sweeping the nation with a fever that makes its way into every bar, restaurant, store, and home in the country.
One of the best ways for brands to engage customers with both your brand and the event that’s happening around you is to utilise packaging designs that relate to the event, but you need to ensure that you’re sticking within the compliance guidelines to avoid any penalties.
For customers shopping specifically for the event, for example when hosting their friends to watch a World Cup match, these products appear to be the perfect choice for the event, giving them a quick, easy, and targeted solution to the problem that they have.
Low-cost, high-quantity promotions
In keeping with the theme of hosting, we expect to see consumers looking for the best deal on multipack food and drink options, with many shoppers likely to choose the most affordable option rather than their preferred brand.
In short, this means that multipack pricing on items such as soft drinks, alcohol, and snacks will be crucial – if you’re unable to match or beat your competitors on price, you may be facing an uphill battle to achieve new sales.
Remaining reactive to the World Cup status of the home nations
Lastly, and perhaps most crucially, it’s going to be incredibly important to react to the performance of the home nations during the tournament, with our experts predicting a quick shift to Christmas advertising as soon as the home nations are no longer competing in the tournament.
With the heightened tribalism that football brings, a poor showing at the tournament will likely drive consumers to avoid products related to the World Cup.
If you’re able to, we’d suggest planning for a rapid turnaround to remove World Cup products and displays from stores as soon as possible, with Christmas-themed replacements ready to go at a moment’s notice.
Working with our expert team to maximise brand visibility
If you’re looking to tackle the upcoming challenges and put yourself in the lead against your competitors, it’s time to get in touch with the Tactical Solutions team.
We’re a driven team of experts and we’re on a mission to help brands to maximise the returns from their retail strategies.
Get in touch with our team online today to discuss your retail approach, or head over to our case studies section to learn how we’ve helped brands like yours to increase visibility and maximise sales.
