P&G has reaffirmed its commitment to the convenience and impulse channel by hosting its first ShelfHelp forum. The event brought together the company’s ’ShelfHelpers’ retailer ambassadors, all selected by P&G at the start of the year, to work in collaboration with P&G’s convenience teams across its core household categories - laundry, homecare, health & beauty and baby.

The group was formed to help retailers conquer the perception that household goods can be difficult categories to effectively merchandise. For example, homecare is often seen as confusing, offering too much choice particularly when store space is limited.

The quarterly forums being hosted by P&G, facilitate discussions on the latest topics and challenges to affect the sector. The retailers will help shape P&G’s future plans by trialing NPD and seasonal POS solutions to ensure the best activations are launched to boost sales across the impulse market.

Sandeep Hegde, head of convenience at P&G said: “The convenience sector is a major focus for us and while the channel continues to witness growth, we know that there are many challenges facing retailers. Our ShelfHelp website has been an important tool in helping the convenience community get the category management advice they need. However, there is nothing like hearing first hand from retailers.

“The forum really reitterated the strength of progressing with some of our plans but also helped us review how we may evolve other activations we have in the pipeline. It is genuinely an insightful initiative and we look forward to working closely with the retailers in store, over the summer to see projects go live and in turn, educating other store owners on ways to further grow sales in this all important channel.”