While Woolworths’ sales have continued to decline, their misery could spell big wins for customers.
The supermarket giant has announced a major overhaul, promising unbeatable prices on groceries, better special offers and a more local approach to store management.
Woolies say that prices will keep getting lower across the board, especially food prices where the margins allow for greater cuts.
Another focus will be to improve communication. It looks like Coles’ “down down” campaign has convinced customers that they are the cheapest, and with Aldi trading on its cut-price overseas brands, Woolworths will be making very sure you know where its top offers are.
This means that you can expect to see lots more adverts and end-of-aisle displays.
Woolworths also want to make each store more relevant to the local people that shop there.
‘Retail Doctor’ Brian Walker told News.com.au that Woolworths is trying to compete at a local community level rather than “one size fits all.”
“A lot of consumers are moving away from one big shop a week to ‘basket shopping’. They visit two or three times a week to top up,” he said.
This means supermarket giants can’t rely on just having a wide, cheap range. They also need to compete with small local stores on quality and range.
Woolies also plan to revamp its discount department store Big W, which is down 4.5 per cent on last year’s first quarter.
“Kmart’s turnaround showed that what a discount department store can offer is about value. It went from doing a little bit of everything to being very strong on pricing and volume,” Walker explained.
Customers can expect to see Big W focusing on strength in key categories, as Kmart has with apparel.
Despite Woolworth’s run of bad luck, chief executive Brad Banducci says that the supermarket will be back.
“It will be a three to five year journey to rebuild Woolworth’s supermarkets, but we are confident we are on the right track.”
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