IRELAND (News release) -- Smurfit Kappa's innovative ShelfSmart service helped Agua de Benassal, a premium bottled water company in Spain, increase sales by 10%. The company wanted to raise the impact of its products in-store so Smurfit Kappa analysed its current solution and recommended a change of design which led to the significant boost in sales.

The ShelfSmart service combines insights from over 50,000 shoppers across 28 product categories in 13 countries with industry-leading tools and knowledge. These elements work in tandem to enable producers and retailers to test the impact of new packaging designs on shoppers, ultimately allowing them to increase visibility and grow sales.

In addition, the ShelfSmart service uses an inventory of unique tools. One of these tools, the ShelfViewer tool, is a collection of over 100,000 on-the-shelf product images, giving brand owners a preview of today's in-store landscape.

Smurfit Kappa uses the insights and tools in a collaborative process with the customer to create packaging that can out-perform competitors by standing out on the shelf.

By testing the product with hundreds of real shoppers before it is placed in-store, the risk of under-performing design is eliminated and brands can enjoy the benefits associated with having optimised shelf-ready packaging.

With research establishing that up to 82% of purchase decisions are made in store, shelf-ready packaging is a medium that needs to be leveraged in order to stand out from the competition.

Arco Berkenbosch, Vice President of Innovation and Development, Smurfit Kappa, said: "Since launching ShelfSmart back in 2015, we have amassed a huge amount of shopper insights which have been used to produce highly visible, creative shelf-ready packaging for some of the world's biggest brands.

"Although the majority of purchase decisions are made by shoppers in-store, all too often we see that brands fail to seize upon the powerful marketing opportunity this generates. The entire process from insight through to finalising the shopper research only takes a few weeks."

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