b'New Study Analyzes Consumers Path ToPurchase For Fresh Potato CategoryKayla Dome, Global Marketing Manager For Retail,Potatoes USAPotatoesareavaluablecommodityto firsttypeistheauto-pilotconsumer,retailers.Accordingtoa2019 making up 63% of potato shoppers. OnInformationResourcesInc.(IRI)study average, these shoppers engage with oneon product affinity analysis, fresh pota- totwoshoppingtouchpointsbeforetoes can increase the size of consumer decidingtopurchasepotatoes.baskets at retail from $42.60 to $79.49. Secondary displays of potatoes on previ-As retailers continue to evolve to meet ousvisitsprimarilyimpacttheauto-the demand of consumers, it is impor- pilot consumer, as well as recipes andtanttoknowhowtheyareutilizing prices in the store. They purchase pota-bothonlineandin-storeresourcesto toesmostfrequentlywhentheyaredecidetopurchasepotatoes.Kantar located on the end of the shelf, and theyInsights Consulting (Kantar*) conduct- are comparing the price per ounce oned a study for Potatoes USA analyzing thedifferentoptionsavailable.Thethe path to purchase for the fresh potato auto-pilotconsumerismorelikelytocategory.purchasepotatoeswheneitherone-poundorfive-poundpacksizesareUSA PotatoesThe Kantar study revealed that 84% of available. consumers have already decided to buypotatoesbeforevisitingthestore.Of The Kantar study showed a second typethose consumers, 66% have also already of fresh potato consumer is the respon-Messagedecided on the type of potato they will sive in-store consumer. Twenty percentpurchaseatthestore.Thesenumbers of potato shoppers fall into this catego-showthereisanadvantagetoreach ry.Theseconsumerstypicallyengageconsumers prior to them shopping and withtwotofourtouchpointsbeforean opportunity to engage with them in- decidingtopurchasefreshpotatoes.store to drive the purchasing decision. Liketheauto-pilotconsumer,theTheseconsumersareengagingwith responsive in-store consumer is primari-recipesonlinebeforeshopping,using ly influenced to buy potatoes when theythirdpartyshoppinglists,lookingat see them on secondary displays duringpromotionsonlineandin-store,and, previousvisits.Theyarealsoheavilymost importantly, using secondary dis- influencedbytheavailabilityoftheirplaysin-storetoremindthemtobuy preferred pack size and when prices arepotatoes.clearly marked in the store. These con-sumers buy mostly in bulk or pack sizesTheKantarstudyalsorevealedthree between one and four pounds. On aver-typesoffreshpotatoconsumers.The age,theresponsivein-storeconsumer12 POTATO GROWER JANUARY 2020'