Covid 19 stress test for trade

3,800 mystery shoppers from Bonsai Research are on the road from today in the successively reopening shops to check the measures to protect customers from Corona infections. The mystery shoppers will examine, for example, how the distance rules are implemented or how good the customer information on Covid-19 is. Retailers can use the results to optimise their Corona measures. But they can also be used in communication to strengthen customer confidence.

Shops are gradually opening their doors again - good news for many retailers and for the people of Germany. But consumers are unsettled. "On the long road to the much-cited 'new normal', people are looking for support and guidance," says Jens Krüger, Managing Director of the market research company Bonsai Research: "In a resurgent shopping world, they want to be able to trust that retailers are doing everything they can to protect them from infection with Covid-19."

Covid 19 checks for the food and non-food trade

In order to support retail companies in optimising Corona protection and confidence-building measures, around 3,800 mystery shoppers are on duty nationwide as of today.The special mystery checks developed by Bonsai Research for compliance with Corona measures are combined in each case with company-, sector- or even country-specific questions. This is because fashion chains (which will remain closed this week in Bavaria) naturally face different challenges than furniture stores (which are already allowed to open in North Rhine-Westphalia).

Test 80 per cent of all branches in one week

As with normal mystery shopper assignments, companies can also book Covid 19 action checks of, for example, 80 percent of their shops per week. Bonsai has put together three offer packages for this - smart, medium and high involved - depending on how extensive the tests and how detailed the results should be.

The predominantly younger mystery shoppers from Bonsai were also privately out and about in retail stores with above-average frequency in recent weeks. During the shutdown, they visited an average of five "system-relevant" shops per week (for example, supermarkets, discounters, drugstores and pharmacies) to shop for themselves, their families or as part of neighbourhood support. This was the result of an online survey by Bonsai Research among about 750 mystery shoppers. The surveys of the specially trained "professional observers of the point of sale" (PoS) is another offer for retail companies and branded goods: The "Covid-19-Mystery-Omnibus" had already been carried out for the second time before Easter (9.4. and 10.4.2020); the next survey is in preparation.

For more information, please visit: bonsai-research.com/.

Contact: Jens Krüger
Managing Director
Bonsai GmbH
jens.krueger@bonsai-research.com
Phone: 0160 8835825

Attachments: Enclosed you will find a photo by Jens Krüger as well as an illustration photo that you can use for your reporting with the copyright note ©Shutterstock.

The new Bonsai-Sales magazine

Bonsai Research, together with the online supermarket myEnso, has just published the magazine "SALES - HOW TO ROCK YOUR BUSINESS" for the first time. It can be ordered at a price of 19,80 HERE can be ordered. Journalists can order the magazine free of charge from Bonsai LINK. The magazine is published twice a year and is aimed at marketing and communication professionals and all those who are looking for new ideas and impulses for their companies. The title, "Innovate yourselves!", is the programme. In this issue, everything revolves around the topic of innovations - in e-commerce and stationary trade, in the customer experience and the customer journey, in sales and marketing. (Cover illustration attached)

About Bonsai Research

Bonsai was founded in 2004 and specialises in test markets, shopper research, analytics and mystery research. With 15 years of experience in the national and European consumer goods and health care market, Bonsai has developed from a media test market to an experimental platform for marketing innovations with a focus on retail (including food retail, drugstores, DIY stores, pharmacies). Bonsai offers experimental market research close to the customer and accompanies innovations from the development of ideas and concepts to the launch of the product - and beyond. 

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