Mercator Case Study

4. MERCATORCOMPANY

The Mercator Group is one of the largest corporate groups in Slovenia. They area retail outlet also complemented by a range of supplementary services. Mercator was started in 1949 under the name "Ljubljana Groceries" and later changed to the current name. It's operations were mainly in Slovenia before spreading to other retail markets in the Balkan countries.

With 87.1% of the company revenue coming from Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) we note that 57.5% comes from Slovenia. It goes without saying that emphasis has been given to improving its relationship with the consumer in this very competitive market as a way of maintain profitability and increasing its market share (Mercator, 2016).

Figure 3 Sales of Mercator Group

It is critical for the effectiveness of every market segment. With it, marketers can also priories their target audiences. If segmentation shows that some consumers would be more likely to buy a product than others, the attention and resources can be better allocated (Dibb, S. 2010).

7. CUSTOMERCLASSIFICATION

In the retail sector, satisfying customers and having loyal customers have been so important for years. Creating customer satisfaction and loyalty provides sustainable competitive advantage and differentiation from rivals. Customers have varying needs, behaviours and preferences, and it is challenging for companies to serve all customers equally well. Customer segmentation emerged in response to this problem. Most of the classification schemes in marketing are based on the concept of market segment. In its general form, classification is the process of classifying objects into groups. The way to classify objects into groups based on the similarity of their directly measurable

 Improve the firm's understanding of its client's spending habits from the data collection and demographic profiling.

From the data collected the retailer gets information enabling them make decisions pertaining inventory management ,price controls upon studying consumers' spending habits and know how, where and when to schedule promotions.

Loyalty programs take various forms: points, tiers, social media and paid programs. Retailers may be found to use any of these or a combination of them. Among the reward from these programs discounts, cash-back, points, free shipping, free gifts, upgrades and access to exclusive treatment are a few among many of the rewards available.

A complex loyalty program was developed using the demographic and behavioural dimensions of Mercator's client base, allowing for the development of tailor-made reward schemes that boost brand loyalty and ensure a consistent experience in all of the retail outlets.

Mercator in Slovenia has launched a new customer loyalty program, the Pika loyalty card, which has been particularly successful in Slovenia. It has helped the retailer reward loyalty. By buying products, customers enjoy discounts for a selected group of