New consumer research carried out by Behaviour & Attitudes shows that newspaper purchasers spend an average of €14 per shopping trip, including the price of their newspaper and this generates an estimated €1.9bn in direct and indirect sales to the retail sector.
The quantitative study, commissioned by NewsBrands Ireland, took place in October 2019 and was conducted amongst a sample of 510 respondents nationwide. The findings were unveiled at the Shelflife C-Store Awards which took place this week and are sponsored by NewsBrands Ireland.
In addition, the research found that the Irish newspaper buyer is a frequent and committed one – with a majority of them (54%) buying a paper 3 to 7 days a week. The average newspaper purchaser picks up 1.2 papers per trip – rising to 1.4 papers on Sundays. Some 95% of those who had just purchased a newspaper that day had planned to do so before entering the store while just over half of all newspaper purchasers will travel to another shop to buy their preferred title, if it is not in stock, the research noted.
Newspaper impulse purchasing is also the highest amongst all 16-34-year-old buyers, one in six of whom only decided to pick up a newspaper while in the outlet. The research noted that there are three triggers of equal importance for impulse newspaper buyers – headline impact, adjacency to other products planned to purchase, and positioning of the newspaper display as encountered in-store.
The most commonly purchased non-paper categories linked to newspaper purchasing are milk and bread, with reasonably high proportions also opting for something from the deli counter, and/or fresh produce.
According to Vincent Crowley, chairman of NewsBrands Ireland: “This research proves that newspapers remain a highly profitable retail product category. Consumer behaviour and reading habits continues to shift and evolve but the fact is that 3 million newspapers are still sold every week. Our publishers are committed to working with retailers to help them maximize sales and drive valuable footfall into their stores.”
