Do you REALLY know who your shoppers are? Gaining insights on those consumers who purchase your products can unlock the door to growth of your brand, and there are several ways of going about it. This was one of the topics of the roundtables at ECRM's roundtables held during its Convenience and Impulse, Front-End & Checklane Sessions last month in Orlando.

Andrew Allen of Grace Management Group -- a RangeMe Premium & Verified subscriber and maker of Fresh Scents fragrances -- moderated the roundtable and sat with ECRM's Joseph Tarnowski at the Session to discuss some key takeaways from the buyers and brands who share their insights on the topic.

Of course, many brands, particularly larger ones with the resources to do so, tap into 3rd party data like that from Circana and NielsenIQ (in fact, NIQ also has Byzzer powered by NielsenIQ, which it developed specifically for smaller brands). These insights provide powerful information on how your products perform across various markets and time frames.

Then there is your own data that you can leverage, and what Allen learned from the roundtable discussion is that many emerging brands have found some scrappy-yet-powerful ways of tapping into some of these insights themselves. These include:

Post-purchase surveys
Tapping into your existing customers can help you glean insights to better engage potential new ones.

Leveraging retail partnerships
Asking retail buyers about the shoppers in particular markets. According to Allen, buyers are often willing to share this information because it will help both of you to better serve their shoppers.

Social media
Your social media audience is a great way to get qualitative feedback on your products, as well as what they would like to see you make in the future.

But collecting all of this data doesn't help in itself; you have to take the learnings and put them into practice. Here are some ways in which you can do this:

Packaging
Tap into shopper insights to determine what words, images, and colors work best.

Retail channels
These insights can also show you how to approach different retail channels. Some, like the convenience channel, may be better for impulse-type offerings, while others drive more planned purchases.

Merchandising
Shopper information can drive your merchandising strategies, as well -- where and how you display your products in the store can vary depending on the type of store and the consumers who shop it.