Walk down any grocery store aisle and you’ll witness two completely different behaviors playing out side by side.
Some shoppers cruise through, grabbing items without breaking stride- a box of cereal here, a bottle of shampoo there. Others pause, pick up products, read labels, compare options, sometimes looking genuinely confused about what to choose.
These aren’t just different shopping styles. They represent fundamentally different mindsets that have big implications for how CPG brands should think about product development, packaging, and marketing strategy.
CPG brands get frustrated when a customer picks one product over another. But if they took some time to explore an empathetic perspective – the perspective of their customer – they’d realize that we’ve got two distinct buying behaviors going on.
Interested in learning more? Listen to the podcast on the topic of shopping versus restocking.
The two modes: shopping vs. restocking
Shopping, to us is when someone enters the store knowing they have a problem to solve, but the solution is still taking shape in their mind. They need to clean their bathroom, but last time’s product didn’t quite work.
So they’re evaluating options. They’re reading claims, comparing bottles, actively deciding at the point of sale. This decision-making can happen in-store, through advertising, or even by asking friends for recommendations.
Restocking, on the other hand, is pure habit. “I ran out of something, or I know what I want, and I’m just going to the store to make sure I can put some more in my cupboard”. It’s not about switching – it’s about replenishing what’s already been decided. The person isn’t trying to solve a problem; they simply don’t have any more of what they normally use.
When someone is in restocking mode, they’re not an opportunity for your new product. Their brain doesn’t have space for something different – they’re focused on efficiency, not evaluation.
When someone is in restocking mode, they’re not an opportunity for your new product. Their brain doesn’t have space for something different – they’re focused on efficiency, not evaluation.
When restocking goes wrong: the unintended shopping moment
There are a few ways CPG brands – unknowingly – sabotage themselves.
Take Katherine, principal here at the Re-Wired Group, and the process she goes through buying her cat’s food.
For years, she’d grab the same product, recognizing it instantly by the color and the picture of the cat on the package. Then the brand “improved” their packaging, changing both the color and the cat image.
Suddenly, she couldn’t find what she was looking for. Her restocking mission became an unwanted shopping experience. Unable to remember the specific claims or even the exact product name (because she’d transitioned from shopping to restocking long ago), she ended up buying a different brand entirely.
This scenario plays out constantly in CPG. Brands think they’re making packages more impactful, but they’re actually making them harder for existing customers to find.
The result? Loyal customers accidentally switch to competitors.
The insurance and Tide test: creating space for new solutions
So, how do you break through when people are locked in restocking habits? The answer lies in creating what we call “space in the brain” before they reach the store.
Consider insurance commercials that show extreme scenarios – fires, floods, unusual accidents. They’re not targeting people actively shopping for insurance. They’re planting seeds of doubt: “Am I really covered if this happens?” This creates context that might shift someone from restocking (auto-renewing their current policy) to shopping (evaluating alternatives).
Tide’s pod commercials work similarly. Instead of just promoting cleaner clothes, they show teenagers and partners helping with laundry. The message is clear: pods make it simple enough for anyone to help. Suddenly, the powder seems complicated, and there’s space in the brain for a new solution.
Advertising is the place where you create the space in the brain for a new solution to fall into. Consider the opportunities to create space for your own products, could you be missing a trick here?
The shopping/restocking framework in action: development and strategy
This shopping/restocking framework should inform three critical areas:
- Product development: What struggling moment are you solving? Understanding what people would “fire” to hire your product helps you focus on real switching opportunities rather than assuming everyone is constantly evaluating alternatives.
- Advertising and positioning: Your job isn’t just to promote benefits, it’s to frame struggling moments and help people realize their current solution might not be working. This must happen before they reach the store, because once they’re in restocking mode, they might simply forget about the problem until the next time it surfaces.
- Brand changes: Before updating packaging, positioning, or even product placement, consider the restocking disruption you might create. Are you making it easier or harder for existing customers to find you?
The empathetic perspective
The most powerful application of this framework is developing genuine empathy for your customers’ mindset. When someone is restocking, they have “1000 things in their head.” They don’t want to think about your category… they want to grab what they need and move on.
Your opportunity lies in those moments when restocking breaks down – when products are out of stock, when packages change unexpectedly, or when life circumstances shift. But you can’t build a business strategy around hoping for these accidents. Instead, you need to create the conditions where people naturally transition from restocking to shopping.
Learn more about empathetic perspective and the other traits all entpreneurs have.
How to apply it:
This isn’t a challenge unique to the CPG market, it’s a challenge that many brands face.
Next time you’re in a grocery store, spend a few minutes observing (not creepily, just watching). Can you identify who’s shopping versus restocking? Shopping usually involves picking up multiple items, comparing, reading. Restocking looks like grabbing and moving on.
Then ask yourself: How many of your customers are in each mode? What are you doing to create context for the restockers? And when you make changes to your brand, are you making life easier or harder for the people who already choose you?
The growth you’re looking for isn’t in the restocking aisle – it’s in understanding the struggling moments that make people willing to shop again.