UK retailer M&S launched its own version of the Little Shop promotion on Wednesday, off the back of Coles’ unprecedented success with the mini groceries.
This is the UK’s first Little Shop campaign and features 25 iconic M&S Food products including the popular Percy Pigs, Colin the Caterpillar cake as well as plant-based favourite Plant Kitchen Cauliflower Popcorn and M&S Chicken Tikka Masala, which was the first ever chilled ready meal introduced to the nation by the brand in the 80s.
The major difference between Coles Little Shop and the M&S version is that the UK retailer’s products are all own brand while Coles featured replicas of Australia’s most iconic products including Vegemite, Nutella, Weet-Bix and Tim Tams.
Some of the brands in Coles Little Shop campaign including Pental’s White King, Freedom Foods and Messy Monkeys reported a 50 per cent surge in products sales since the promotion began.
Despite only lasting for eight weeks, Coles Little Shop campaign helped the supermarket giant bag a 5 per cent jump in sales for the first quarter of 2019. M&S will be hoping to see a similar impact on its bottom line.
For every £20 spent in M&S on food, customers will receive a free M&S collectable in a mystery wrapper.
While the mini groceries are made from a combination of cardboard, foil and plastic, all the packaging they come in is recyclable, and all the paper and cardboard used is approved by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
Coles copped a lot of flack from environmental groups over its Little Shop promotion for excess use of plastic, so soon after removing single-use plastic bags from its stores.
In March, M&S announced plans to overhaul stores and bring food to the fore in an effort to target families’ weekly food shop. In a letter to hundreds of its grocery suppliers, M&S said it wanted to bring its full range of 6,500 food products to more stores to encourage customers to undertake bigger shopping trips.
According to The Grocer, Little Shop is the work of Netherlands-based company, Unga, which specialises in retail loyalty campaigns.