Meg Calamita, Extra and Compre marketing manager, talks about the changes implemented in the company to serve the new consumer
The group of Extra brands ends this week the airing of the first campaign that brought them all together in a single action, under the motto Extraro de Prêmios Extra. The promotion, which raffles off prizes, celebrates the brands’ anniversary.
Meg Calamita, Extra and Compre marketing manager, tells in this interview the reasons for this promotional action and the changes implemented in the company to serve the new consumer, as a result of the social isolation caused by the pandemic. “Our strategy is to have the customer at the center of decisions”, she says, who also talks about the investments that the group has made to keep the customer close, whether in smaller stores, the Mini Extra, or in hypermarkets.
He also talks about e-commerce, which gained prominence and good investments in this period. “Online shopping has become part of the daily lives of many customers, who had never purchased products through these platforms before”. Below are excerpts from the interview.
Why did Extra decide to involve all of its brands in a single promotion (Blood of Awards was broadcast this month on all media channels)?
Because we have an omnichannel brand, which offers consumers multiple possibilities of choice through the Mercado Extra, Mini Extra and ClubeExtra.com.br formats, which offer a close and complete shopping experience, both in physical stores and in the online environment. With this campaign, in addition to rewarding our customers in celebration of their anniversary, we wanted to show that Extra brands offer a complete shopping solution at all times that consumers need through the particularities of each of the formats. The Extra Market, for those who want to make their purchases in the neighborhood of their home with a closer service and with several possibilities in services; the Mini Extra, for faster shopping when something is missing at home or when the customer just wants to have a snack when leaving work; and ClubeExtra.com.br and the Clube Extra app, which are in the palm of consumers’ hands, with the possibility of withdrawal within one hour or delivery within two hours.
Did the campaign also serve to reveal what the behavior of today’s consumer is like, whose profile has changed a lot in recent times?
Yes, it has certainly changed, the pandemic encouraged a change in the consumption habits of customers and online shopping became essential for people who needed to purchase products without leaving home and this was maintained with the release of the restrictions imposed by the pandemic. Online shopping has become part of the daily lives of many customers, who had never purchased products through these platforms before.
What is Extra’s strategy to keep up with the change in consumer behavior?
In fact, our strategy is to have the customer at the center of decisions, so we follow 100% of the journey and have their opinion as a source of knowledge, which directs the brand’s business in the constant search to serve the customer when, where and as he wishes, in addition to making improvements to achieve an increasingly improved experience at all points, from contact with the Customer Service to the packaging that arrives via e-commerce, at his home.
What is the main characteristic of today’s consumer?
It is certainly the preference for multichannel, the consumer nowadays wants the convenience of making their purchases when, where and how
he wishes. And we have to be ready in any of these moments, delivering with quality and security throughout the journey.
How has the pandemic impacted the consumption of hypermarkets? Should the super and hypermarkets sector continue today’s format?
The pandemic impacted the customer experience with the online channel to make supermarket purchases and the online environment became part of the daily lives of these customers. Proof of this were the company’s investments to increase e-commerce operational capacity, in addition to the opening of mini distribution centers fully dedicated to online operation in strategic points in Brazil. Since 2020, we have tripled our e-commerce operational capacity and opened distribution centers in different locations across the country.
What would you highlight in this operation?
To bring even more mobility to the shopping routine and easily fit into the consumer’s daily life, the Clube Extra application, through which it is also possible to make purchases, underwent a restructuring process, which facilitated navigation, including chatbot for checking the status of orders and allowed a more personalized service, presenting the best offers according to the purchase behavior of customers. Today, the app is one of the main traffic and sales conversion generators for the ClubeExtra.com.br. Other actions, such as tracking orders via WhatsApp, new product categorization and acceptance of food stamps as a payment method, were also implemented in order to promote an even more dynamic experience for consumers.
What are the logistics for picking up products?
Both in the ClubeExtra.com.br e-commerce and in the application, it is possible to opt for the Retire Extra, for example, a modality in which the customer picks up their purchase already separated in one of the stores of Mercado Extra one hour after placing the order. In the Express modality, delivery is guaranteed within two hours after payment confirmation. In addition to the reduction in the estimated time for delivery and collection, both the Extra and Express options started to work on Sundays.
What is the main influence inherited from the pandemic?
The pandemic also influenced people to consume more in places close to their homes, so the Mini Extra units, which are present in several neighborhoods in the city of São Paulo, and the Mercado Extra units, which are present both in capitals and in cities in the interior of São Paulo and in several other states, such as Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuco and Fortaleza, among others, stood out. A particularity of the proximity format is the possibility of adapting the assortment, according to the needs of the neighborhood and the characteristic of the consumption behavior of customers in each region. Through this customization of the offer of items, the chain meets the daily demands of the consumer and had a good adhesion of the customers given the proximity of the residences and the practicality of the model.
How much has retail e-commerce grown in recent years?
In 2021, the e-commerce sales of GPA, Extra’s controlling group, reached R$ 1.7 billion, a growth of 53% compared to 2020. These sales already represent 7.9% of the total sales of food segment of GPA Brazil.
Is e-commerce a trend that is here to stay and should the segment change its positioning due to this change?
In fact, the Extra brands’ priority is to provide the best shopping experience and allow consumers to always choose when, where and how to buy the items they want. GPA, and consequently Extra, has as a great differential its ability to be multichannel and offer customers a variety of shopping and navigation options, whether through the Clube Extra website or app or also in the last milers, such as James , iFood and Rappi, through which customers can also buy products from the chain. In the case of ClubeExtra.com.br, in addition to the option to browse by product and food categories, there is also the possibility to search for home appliances and computer options, in addition to a filter to choose only products from a specific brand, which is a partner of Extra flag. All these functions reinforce the presence for the consumer and fulfill our goal of delivering a unique shopping experience and journey.
Does the brand’s marketing invest mainly in young people? Is the idea to conquer this target especially?
In fact, the focus of Extra brands is on the entire consumer journey, which means that we also want to serve young people in any environment they are familiar with the brand. Today we have products and services that serve all age groups, but the particularities of each profile make the omnichannel movement increasingly important to achieve more efficiency in the final delivery.
In addition to the Istoro de Prêmios promotion, does Extra intend to invest in other campaigns this year? What is the outlook for the coming months?
Yes, we have important moves ahead, to make this journey more and more tangible, but for now we can’t open more information.
What is the growth forecast?
We have an important quest to increase the consumer base in the Clube Extra application, it is an important loyalty channel.
In the face of the dismal scenario of the economy, the average spending decreased by how many percent?
Despite the challenges of the macro scenario, with high inflationary pressure and a decrease in the population’s income, in the first quarter of this year, GPA, the group of which the Extra brands are part, recorded gross revenue in line with the same period in 2021.
