The relationship between in-store marketing and observed sales of sustainable products: A shopper marketing view

To stimulate sales of sustainable products, retailers need to know whether their in-store instruments effectively influence their market shares. This study uses actual sales data and a multilevel modeling approach to describe the market shares of sustainable brands according to price level, price promotions, and shelf layout factors, while controlling for the customer base and competitive environment. As expected, a price premium compared with the leading brand in a category decreases market share for sustainable brands, but the location on the shelf and the arrangement of the entire product category also influence market shares considerably. In particular, where literature has described conflicting findings for horizontal location on the shelf, in our study sustainable brands receive more market share when placed in the middle of the shelf space devoted to the category, and eye level is the best vertical position. Higher market share is observed when the entire category is arranged by brand. This study therefore suggests that where sustainable brands are located on the shelf may be just as important, if not more than, how many facings they have.