Are customers bypassing your wellness aisles as they fill their carts with grocery items? Boost sales with a time-tested strategy: cross-merchandising. Try these ideas to give wellness items added visibility in the aisles where customers spend most of their time.
Meal replacement/protein powders in produce – For health and wellness consumers, smoothies don’t go out of style. Take advantage of complementary spinning racks and shelving display units from vendor partners and merchandise high margin dollar meal replacement powders within or adjacent to your banana display. Stick with a single brand/product segment that is on promotion and rotate display frequently.
Bulk soap tables in grocery & deli areas – Product lines like Pacha Soap or Indigo Wild are most successful when merchandised abundantly on free-standing tables outside of the wellness aisle. Look for locations where shopper traffic flow naturally pauses, like near your coffee bar or near freezer doors. Be careful to not comingle these scent-driven purchases with hot bar aromas.
Soft merch (clothing) on free-standing, movable displays – Get your soft merch off of your endcaps! Food retailers are never going to be destinations for clothing; these are impulse purchases. Reserve valuable endcap real estate for rotating promotions and merchandise garments on free-standing displays that can be moved around the store. Consider adjacencies to sets where shoppers are more likely to be in an impulsive or indulgent mindset: chocolate, grab and go, bakery, floral.
Group baby items together – Group your baby items in one convenient spot. Merchandise baby shampoo, lotions and creams with diapers and baby food; bottles, pacifiers and other general merch for baby will do well here, too. If you have room, double display baby items in wellness – along with items for older kids like multi-vitamins and supplements, toothbrushes and bubble bath.
Merchandise cooking utensils in the appropriate department – If your store carries a lot of general merchandise, spread it throughout the store. Install a slatwall in produce and use it to hang displays of gadgets like garlic presses, lemon zesters and apple corers. Similarly, tenderizers, basting brushes, thermometers, grilling tools and drip pans can be hung on a slatwall in the meat department.
Remember, cross-merchandising is an art; it should be thoughtfully considered, not a last-minute decision. Recommended is a coordinated approach, involving a storewide theme and cross-departmental planning sessions. NCG produces the Promo Playbook to help you facilitate a quarterly planning approach to thematic, storewide promotions.
