Convenience Product
This article covers meaning, importance, types & example of Convenience Product from marketing perspective.
What is Convenience Product?
Convenience product is a product that is purchased by the consumers frequently and with minimal efforts, involvement and thought process. For buying these products, there is no planning required and these are purchased as a routine as it is useful to a very wide target market. These convenience product purchases are also called as low involvement purchases.
Depending upon the utility and situation, these products are classified as staple goods (staples), impulse goods and emergency goods.
Importance of Convenience Products
convenience products are one of the most important products in the market and are widespread across locations, cultures, segments. Since the commerce has started, such products have always been in demand and customers need them more often and buy them quickly. A company which is into convenience products of any type can make it big by making sure that the distribution is widespread and the quality is durable. The focus remains more on the distribution and pricing than conventional promotion, advertising and differentiation.
A product like umbrella needs to be there when a customer needs it and should be affordable. Once these 2 conditions are met, customer would buy it quickly as it is convenient that way. Similarly sugar is another product. The quality needs to be high to enable some kind of brand association and repeat purchase.
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Convenience Product Types
These products are also known as convenience goods and are mostly available at all convenience stores. These can be classified into the following categories:
Staple products
They form the regular purchases for the consumer. Therefore, these are bought out of habit, without much thinking. These products have been bought in a similar fashion since long and may be since generations. These products form essential part of daily life like food and care.
Impulse products
They are the goods purchased without any planning. These products are also convenient in terms of ability to buy. There are often found near point of sales (POS) or at malls and exhibitions at a place where there are more chances of them being sold.
They are easy to buy, not very costly and the customer is mostly well aware of such products since long to take a quick decision on purchase.
Emergency products
They are the goods produced when there is urgent need. These can be seasonal or for temporary need. When the need or demand arises, it may be fulfilled quickly and lot of differentiation is not there.
For all these categories, the consumer does not execute the full buying cycle.
Examples of Convenience Products
Staple Products - wheat, milk, sugar, toothpaste, oil, rice, commodities like spices and condiments, fruits, vegetables are good examples of convenience products
Impulse Products - Candies, Chocolates, Mints, Protein Bars, Chewing Gum are examples of impulse products. Here branding and differentiation can matter but unavailability of one brand can be quickly substituted by another brand.
Emergency products - Umbrella, Raincoats are apt examples for emergency products
Hence, this concludes the definition of Convenience Product along with its overview.
Browse the definition and meaning of more similar terms. The Management Dictionary covers over 1800 business concepts from 5 categories.
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