In this day and age, one may be forgiven to think that the days of the paper advertising pamphlet could be numbered. But despite the continued shift towards digital content in every aspect of our lives, supermarket leaflets are still going strong.
Placed in shopping trolleys or posted through letterboxes, many customers still consult these leaflets when it comes to making their purchases. As many families tighten their belts, news of discounts and offers is becoming increasingly useful and necessary.
"We receive the leaflet in our mailbox,” said one woman shopping at the Cora hypermarket on the outskirts of Brussels. “We then mark what interests us and come to the store to see what is left because people often react very quickly to the offers. Given the current crisis, it's normal."
Communication about promotions
"It's a weekly bulletin which guides customers in their purchases," said Luc Janssens, director of the Cora store in the Walloon town of Hornu. "Today, with the problems in people’s finances, we see an increase in items purchased on promotion."
The situation is the same at Carrefour. "A significant part of the turnover is from promotions and customers remain sensitive to them,” confirmed Ariane Goossens, head of press relations for the supermarket chain in Belgium. “The leaflet represents one of the best ways to communicate about promotions."
At Aldi, 4.4 million flyers are distributed every week but the price of paper has soared and even there, savings must be made. Large retailers therefore have an interest in promoting digital media but referring to the digital leaflet is not yet as natural for most customers. This is why Aldi has decided to facilitate the transition to the digital leaflet via its milk cartons. The customer can scan a QR code on the packaging with their smartphone and is then redirected to the digital leaflet.
Even if current inflation provides a boost to the digital transition, the end of paper does not seem to be in sight, confirmed Luc Janssens. "Every week in our store, we distribute tens of thousands of flyers in mailboxes. But we are not even at 10% of that reach with our digital medium."
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Killing off the paper advertising leaflet is therefore not on the agenda, but distributors are thinking about how to make it evolve. "We plan to reduce a certain number of pages in our leaflets to focus on the essentials, hence the interest in encouraging our customers to move towards a more digital transition," said Luc Janssens.
"Despite the fact that digital is gaining momentum and that customers are also reacting to online promotions, the impact of the paper leaflet remains significant and will not disappear yet," confirmed Carrefour’s Ariane Goossens.
