Anna Rose Garvey, Global Graduate Milan, Bord Bia - The Irish Food Board
Italian supermarkets are responding to changing consumer habits in different ways. Choosing three from the range available can give us some insight into what direction supermarkets are going in Italy today.
Esselunga
This popular Italian supermarket chain is developing both its online platform, and in-store experience. They already offer a popular at-home delivery system, and the option of ‘Clicca e vai’ (click and go) and ‘Clicca e vai locker’ (Click and go locker), where consumers can do their shopping online, and either choose to collect it in a drive-through, without needing to step out of the car, or pick it up from a designated locker in the supermarket. In-store, Esselunga is looking to further adapt to their customers’ lifestyles. Their newest innovation, ‘La Esse’, recently opened its doors in the centre of Milan. With the tagline ‘Simple. Close. Fresh’ (LaEsse), Esselunga is trying to fit their supermarket into the busy lives of their city-dwelling shoppers. Set over three floors, La Esse combines a café/restaurant (where shoppers can enjoy coffee and fresh, gourmet food), a co-working space, and a traditional supermarket space (with faster self-checkouts, and the added option of collecting their shopping from one of the Clicca e vai lockers).
Looking at Bord Bia’s Consumer Lifestyle Trends, we can see that this can be seen as a reflection of the Fuller Lives trend (Fuller Lives), where consumers are looking to be more productive with their time, and are more prone to using food delivery systems. Last year, Esselunga also opened a large 4,600 sqm superstore in Brescia, outside Milan. Instead of the city-dwelling shopper who would benefit from the quick, smaller ‘La Esse’, this large store has over 20,000 products, and includes a ‘Bar Atlantic’ restaurant with self-service options, a patisserie, a bakery, a pharmacy, an Esserbella beauty salon and a child-minding service, useful for the shopper who wants to centralize their errands and needs into one location.
In their Turin supermarket, COOP are utilizing digital means to help their in-store customers. Digital totems guide the shoppers to the products they are looking for, provide nutritional advice, and can be used to order items from the COOP Fiorfiore café counter. This again feeds back into the Fuller Lives trend (Fuller Lives), as more retailers are automating points of purchase to enable seamless buying decisions.
Doro Supermercati
This supermarket chain, based in the Liguria region, has adapted their stores to help busy people with on-the-go lifestyles. Tapping into the lunchtime rush, customers can create their own lunch boxes, and have them delivered, order and pick them up themselves, or make them in the in-store ‘vending area’ (GDO Week). This area is equipped with charging stations, Wi-Fi, and dedicated microwaves.
Sources:
Bord Bia’s Consumer life style trends
https://www.bordbiaconsumerlifestyletrends.ie/trends/fuller-lives/
2019, IGD Retail Analysis, Esselunga driving store innovation and development
https://retailanalysis.igd.com/markets/italy/news-article/t/esselunga-driving-store-innovation-and-development/i/22981
2019, GDO Week, TOPSTORE 2019