Sainsbury’s has revealed a new city convenience store concept. Located at Mansion House, central London, and trading under the On The Go banner from as little as 200 square metres, the format combines freshly-made food for in-store and on-the-go consumption with fast and frictionless ways to shop with Sainsbury’s and Argos. As the test is rolled out, nine more stores will open across the UK over the coming months. Longer term, more than 130 (out of 807) Local convenience stores could be converted into On the Go stores.
Sainsbury’s has used data analytics to optimize its assortment at On the Go to the needs of busy city workers, with food-to-go ranges changing three times a day for breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea. At the pilot store, almost 90% of the assortment have been selected specifically to meet the needs of Mansion House customers. Late last year, Sainsbury’s in the UK announced they were partnering with Accenture in developing a machine learning product that would collect real-time data to generate shopper behaviors insights.
As Sainsbury’s moves to defend its leading position in the fast-growing British convenience segment, suppliers should note the spread of data-driven, hyper-local assortments at retailers, as also demonstrated by the Amazon 4-star format. To win in the future retail landscape, CPGs must monitor and drive performance on key ecommerce metrics to ensure consideration for physical shelf listings in a store landscape increasingly shaped by small-box formats.
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