Holiday merchandising tips
Talks with produce merchandising experts, marketing gurus and data strategists have caused some ideas to gel when it comes to merchandising your produce during the fast-approaching holiday season.
Brush up on these concepts and maybe, when making some of your business and merchandising decisions, you’ll think of a new angle or idea that can boost sales, reduce shrink and increase consumption.
Use trends
One merchandiser incorporated a viral TikTok trend of “nature’s cereal” to display pomegranates, berries, coconut water and ice cubes in one place. And of course, the immunity-boosting health benefits of produce can still be highlighted, even during a season of comfort food. Remember, potatoes are a vegetable. People want local, but also exotic produce. They want sustainability in everything. Any playful or witty connection to some cultural trend can be used here. In 2020, one retailer masked the scarecrows around the pumpkins they sold. Hey, wearing a mask was company policy at the time. Scarecrows were no exception.
Recipe planning
You’ve got to make holiday meal planning easy and inspiring with smart cross-merchandising. Include spices and sauces, traditional accompanying produce, other foods that complement the main attraction and photos of dishes that can be made with the produce displayed. Even for meals besides the big holiday meal, planning ahead may be more of a shopper behavior. After another wave of COVID-19, IRI data from September indicates that shoppers are back to making fewer trips to the store, and they’re doing more online ordering with curbside pickup.
Look abundant
While inflation is making purchasing power lose a little muscle, you don’t have to look like it out front. Maybe your produce department or customer has to buy less volume at a time. You still don’t want the displays to look scarce. The classic overflowing basket, ahem … cornucopia … of fruits and vegetables always helps. Use your tricks to make a little go a long way.
Add flowers and plants
Regardless of what COVID-19 is doing nationwide at the time of each holiday, consumers are still likely to gather more than they were in 2020, if not as much as in years past. This is when people want table décor, centerpieces, and decorations around the house. You might as well pair it up with your produce. Add mums, fall foliage, miniature evergreens, poinsettias, balloons, and other creative décor to your produce. Make your potatoes and carrots an event.
Use QR codes
QR codes made a resurgence when the pandemic hit and restaurants started using them instead of paper menus. People no longer need to download an app, as most cell phones have QR code readers integrated into the phone camera. Use this trend to keep your point-of-sale materials down to just enough and point customers to your website for good recipes, holiday tips, contests, sustainability information and farmer stories.
Online merchandising
Do online the same as you do in store, as much as possible. Create hype over seasonal produce, feature sales, suggest recipe ideas and get the best photography you can. Use holiday graphics. Most of all, make sure your inventory matches what’s listed online. If it’s unavailable and a shopper has to accept a substitution, they may never be a repeat shopper for that item, and possibly for that store, if it keeps happening.
Social media
This powerful tool has proven its worth in so many ways. Use your platforms to direct people to your website for online shopping. You may be surprised (or maybe not) how many people under 45 have purchased something directly through a social media platform or indirectly. Be funny, be inspiring, be relevant, be informative, be helpful.
