How to snag digital impulse buys for produce

"Digital has not necessarily given produce the same bump as it has the center-store,” said Joe Watson, vice president of retail, foodservice and wholesale at International Fresh Produce Association.

Historically, about 40% of produce sales and unit volume at brick-and-mortar grocery stores are from impulse buys, Watson once said. How do you do that online?

Tips for impulse buys

To grab those last-minute produce sales online, retailers are cross-merchandising like they do in-store, with tie-ins, said Anne-Marie Roerink, president of 210 Analytics. For instance, a digital storefront will group together tomatoes, basil, pasta, sauce and Parmesan cheese.

“And if a retailer doesn’t do something like that, they’re missing an opportunity for an impulse buy: Meal solution add-ons to their digital storefronts,” Roerink said.

Personalization is key to impulse purchases and upping that overall basket, said Becky Eldredge, vice president of commercial customer media and loyalty at 84.51°, a retail-science insights division of The Kroger Co., Cincinnati.

Amost 60% of customers are more likely to purchase a certain brand or shop a certain store if they're receiving personalized content for it.

“We've got the science to help build your basket based on what you've bought in the past,” Eldredge said. “That helps to save you time in building that overall basket.”

Frequent and past order recommendations can create 20% to 40% more incremental sales in the overall basket, saving shoppers time.

Still, online grocery-shopper impulses vary from those in-store.

“Impulse buys are motivated by the senses, and that’s so hard to replicate online,” Roerink said. That’s why great photography at the digital store is critical.

Also: live-streaming video with shoppable links creates time scarcity and makes shopping more social, which increase impulse buys. Firework created a livestreaming holiday cooking tutorial for The Fresh Market, based in Greensboro, N.C., and more than 400,000 customers ordered the ingredients after the event, said Jason Holland, Firework chief business officer.

Jordan Wise, produce manager at Wegmans in Brooklyn, N.Y., estimated that about 80% of his store’s sales are through Instacart. He’s discovered that less-familiar fruit sells much better — in some cases, weekly sales quadrupled — when the fruit is skinned, seeded, washed and cut. How?

“E-commerce and social media have a big impact on what’s popular,” Wise said. “We really have to follow trends. Instacart helps because we can see what people are buying.”

Related: Kroger's data science company on shopper personalization on "Tip of the Iceberg Podcast"

Impulse buying decisions are influenced by website quality, perceived product quality, product reviews and product information provided by the retailer.

Personalized product recommendations and personalized price promotions (debated on ethics) can lower the information overload that shoppers feel, according to a November 2022 Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services article.

The Fresh Market uses Instacart’s algorithm to suggest items based on a shopper's current and past purchases, said Gerrick Polinsky, senior e-commerce manager of merchandising and operations.

“And we can also leverage our own recommendations, like register stands at gas stations and Target, where the gum and candy is, after you click to check out online,” Polinsky said. “It says something like, ‘Got everything you need?’ That page gets me every time, and I end up buying one or two more things.”

Related: This story was published in the May -June issue of PMG magazine. Read the digital issue.