The Decline of Print Circulars: What Retailers Need to Do to Stay Relevant
Swiftly
The Decline of Print Circulars: What Retailers Need to Do to Stay Relevant
For decades, the print circular was the heartbeat of grocery marketing — the go-to vehicle for driving store trips, promoting weekly deals, and inspiring meal planning. But that heartbeat is fading fast.
U.S. print advertising has declined by more than 30% since 2020 (Insider Intelligence, 2024), while print and distribution costs continue to rise. Meanwhile, shopper behavior has fundamentally shifted online — 75% of grocery shoppers now prefer digital promotions (Acosta, 2023). As consumer habits evolve and mailboxes grow quieter, grocers who rely heavily on print are finding it harder to reach their customers and even harder to measure results.
Print won’t disappear overnight, but it’s no longer sustainable as a primary promotional channel. The real challenge isn’t whether to evolve — but how to do it in a way that keeps shoppers engaged and loyal.
The Challenge: A Changing Shopper Landscape
Today’s grocery journey begins long before shoppers enter the store — most often online or on their phones. Shoppers compare prices, browse deals, and build lists digitally. Nearly 70% of consumers expect personalized offers across channels (McKinsey, 2024), yet today’s print circulars deliver the exact same promotions to every household.
Shoppers still like the familiarity and visual appeal of traditional print circulars — and they rely on weekly deals to plan purchases — but they want those experiences delivered in a modern way: in their phone, at their fingertips, and tailored just for them.
If retailers can’t show up digitally at the moment of planning, they risk losing the trip before the shopper ever leaves home.
The Modern Upgrade: Digital Circulars Delivered to Shoppers’ Digital Doorsteps
Swiftly’s Audience Optimizer™ solves one of the biggest challenges facing regional and independent grocers: how to modernize the weekly circular without losing the familiar experience shopper’s trust. It transforms the print circular into a dynamic, personalized digital version—one that still looks and feels like the weekly ad shoppers love but delivers it where it now matters most: in their hands and on their phones.
Traditionally, print circulars have been limited by space — retailers might feature a few hundred SKUs out of thousands carried in-store. That means only a fraction of available deals ever make it into a shopper’s hands, forcing retailers to make tough decisions about which products to highlight. Digital circulars eliminate that constraint entirely. By moving to digital, retailers can showcase every promotion, match the right offers to the right individuals, and personalize content based on purchase history and preferences. The result: a broader reach, higher engagement, and a more satisfying experience for every customer.
By removing the limits of print, retailers can finally deliver promotions that reflect the full depth of their assortment — and that’s where the real opportunity begins.
Audience Optimizer™ uses a retailer’s own first-party data to surface the right offers to the right shopper at the right time. From discovering deals to saving offers to checking out, the entire journey stays connected across the retailer’s digital ecosystem. The result: more trips, bigger baskets, and loyalty that lasts beyond the weekly shop.
How It Works
Audience Optimizer combines personalization, convenience, and measurability in one fully digital experience:
- Replaces static print with a circular delivered through the retailer’s app and website
- Personalizes weekly deals based on real shopper behavior and purchase history
- Measures actual revenue lift, using closed-loop incremental Return on Ad Spend (iROAS™)
Retailers using Audience Optimizer™ are delivering the same deals shoppers expect every week — but with smarter targeting, lower cost, faster activation, and transparent results. On average, retailers see an incredible $25–$35 iROAS— proving a return that print simply can’t match.
It’s everything retailers love about circulars — made smarter, faster, and far more measurable.
Real-World Results: Retailers Leading the Way
Forward-thinking grocers are already seeing the value and measurable impact of Audience Optimizer™:
“We used Audience Optimizer™ to extend the reach of our digital circular — and the results were incredible. In just two months, we drove a significant increase in incremental sales and generated an incremental Return on Ad Spend (iROAS) of over $27. For a retailer of our size, that’s transformative. Swiftly has helped us turn our promotions into real traffic and real revenue.”
- Tedd Handlesman, President at Better Health Market
"With five banners and distinct customer profiles, we needed a way to personalize our circular campaigns at scale—without sacrificing efficiency. Audience Optimizer™ delivered. By dynamically tailoring promotions by shopper behavior and banner, we drove meaningful engagement and incremental store visits, all while maximizing return on ad spend. Swiftly’s tech made it easy to meet customers where they are—with offers that actually matter to them."
– Christin King, Marketing Director
These results demonstrate what’s possible when retailers stop printing and start connecting.
The Future of Grocery Marketing Is Digital
The decline of print isn’t a threat — it’s an opportunity.
Retailers who modernize their circulars are doing more than cutting paper; they’re building stronger, data-driven relationships with their shoppers and unlocking new revenue streams with brand partners.
The future belongs to those who own the digital shopper journey — and it starts by reimagining the circular for a digital-first world.
Ready to modernize your print circular?
Visit swiftly.com or contact us for a demo.
