Every consumer goods marketer knows that stores hold lots of information. Shelves space, appearance, turnaround, promotions locations, prices, in-store communication,... - there is a ton of things that you can learn from a store. You might even talk with a shopper in front of a shelf, with a polite introduction and some well honed questions - and again, you will learn a lot. But there is this key thing you can do in a store that can unlock even further information, and that many marketers don't. You can talk with your restocker.
Yes, the person that replenishes the stores' shelves with your products is one of the most valuable sources of information you can have. They can tell you not only about your products performance (and detail it by variant and size), but also about your competitors. They can comment on which kind of promotion is the most successful and who buys it, based on what they see. They can tell you about pricing and how you can use instore communication (and in a world where this communication is more and more limited by store management, they can even get you a break on this). And they can tell you about how your operations are going, how are things happening on the back of the store - is there any logistics problem, any out of stock or delivery issue, any quality problem? If you go and ask about these things to a restocker (and believe me, they will be willing to talk to you if you show how interested you are and that you work with those brands) they will provide you with important, valuable (qualitative) information and insights, completed unfiltered.
The people that are closest to the market typically have key insights. And there aren't many people that are closer than the restockers, that actually handle your product in stores. So, make a habit of going to a store and talking with them. You won't believe how good is the information you will get. I am still amazed at what I learn on those conversations!
