Dollar Value of FSIs Increased 2.9% in 2015: Kantar Media

Top retailers dominate circulated pages

January 6, 2016, 02:45 pm

Free-Standing Inserts (FSIs) increased their dominance of coupon distribution last year, according to statistics compiled by Kantar Media. 

Consumers were offered more than $511 billion dollars in incentives through FSIs in 2015 – an increase of 2.9 percent compared to the previous year. The growth was driven by the 3.7 percent increase in Face Values.

“The FSI coupon space is becoming an increasingly more tactical world with manufacturers and retailers alike fine-tuning their strategies. There are fewer pages, but with more coupons per page, higher values and shorter expiration lengths. Manufacturers are limiting their financial exposure while still benefiting from the advertising impact of the FSI coupon,” said Lisa Ekstedt, director of custom solutions for Kantar.

Meanwhile, the country’s leading merchants dominated retail pages circulated. The top 10 retailers represented 80.8 percent share of the total retail promotion pages distributed. Four of the top 10 retailers increased FSI Pages Circulated in 2015. Walmart retained the top spot with a 33.4 percent decrease to 5.8 billion pages. Target continued to hold the second spot with a 25.2 percent decrease to 3.1 billion pages, and Walgreens maintained the third spot with a 38.4 percent decrease to 2.2 billion pages. Publix and Rite Aid both increased their participation to rank among top 10 in 2015.

Overall, retail pages distributed are down 24.9 percent with 351 manufacturers participating across 121 retailers in 2015

“Walmart’s focus on new and exclusive offers and Target’s focus on Cartwheel contributed to the decline in overall retailer pages circulated,” Ekstedt stated. “Other retailers like Dollar General and CVS increased their participation to capture a greater share of trips and coupon redemption.”

Nonfood categories distributed more than 195 billion coupons, up 2 percent versus a year ago, driven by the 6.9 percent increase in health care and 19.8 percent increase in other packaged goods (such as batteries, car care, markers, etc.) areas. Nonfood posted steady growth in coupons dropped with increases each year for the past four years. Nonfood categories increased the overall share of coupons dropped by 2 points to 69 percent in 2015.

Food categories distributed more than 89 billion coupons, a 6.1 percent decrease from last year, led by the 17.8 percent decline for the frozen foods area. The average number of coupons per page for CPG products increased for the first time in five years from 1.8 coupons per page to two.

“With higher priced items, Non-Food advertisers are able to run higher value coupon offers which are more likely to drive a retail trip and will more quickly increase the value of the shopper’s basket. FSI coupons provide a way of rewarding the consumer for engaging with their offer through high purchase incentive,” said Ekstedt.

She said FSI coupons continue to be an important part of the CPG manufacturer tool box. “With FSI coupons, advertisers are able to modify their strategy in many ways, including participating in retail promotion, aligning events with consumer pay periods and key holidays and leveraging higher face value offers to engage with consumers,” concluded Ekstedt.