Given the quick pace of grocery trips, enticing shoppers to add extra items to their carts is no small feat. Despite a variety of tempting products and deals, customers often rush through aisles with a singular focus, leaving potential purchases behind. Thankfully, a little creativity can go a long way toward incentivizing purchases outside of shopping lists. By enhancing product presentation, strategically placing goods and implementing effective promotions, stores can learn how to increase their grocery store’s average basket size.
Here are five proven tactics that leverage both innovative merchandising solutions and shopper psychology to encourage your shoppers to leave with fuller baskets.
Strategic Product Placement & Cross-Selling
Place high-demand products in a way that shoppers traverse multiple aisles, encouraging them to discover other items along their path. This strategy can be enhanced by positioning complementary products near each other to facilitate cross-selling. For instance, placing chips next to salsa or placing rolls near refrigerated lunchmeat can significantly increase the likelihood of additional purchases.
Savvy Promotional Strategies
Promotions are a powerful tool to increase basket sizes. Implementing tiered discounts, where customers save more by buying more, or offering promotions like “buy one, get one free” can reliably increase the quantity of items purchased per transaction. The key is ensuring these promotions are compelling enough to encourage additional purchases without cannibalizing sales of full-priced items.
Smarter Store Layouts & Checkout Placements
Design store layouts to guide customers through different sections, exposing them to a broader array of products. Place impulse buy items near checkouts to grab shoppers’ attention as they are about to leave. These small, often inexpensive items can significantly contribute to the overall basket size when strategically displayed.
Loyalty Programs & Personalized Offers
Develop loyalty programs that reward customers for frequent shopping and encourage larger basket sizes through points, discounts or exclusive offers. Personalization is key: Offering tailored promotions based on shopping habits can make these programs more effective. For example, offering discounts on frequently bought items can effectively incentivize an increase in basket sizes and foster customer loyalty. Consider also leveraging technology to provide a more tailored shopping experiences, such as suggestions based on previous purchases or personalized coupons.
Preventing False Out-of-Stocks
Optimizing product presentation and ensuring shelves are never empty is key to maximizing sales. Use innovative retail store fixtures, like pusher trays, to keep products front-facing and organized, reducing false out-of-stocks and making it easier for staff to restock. Pusher trays will keep displays orderly and aesthetically pleasing while ensuring customers always find what they need when shopping for dairy, packaged meats, snacks, produce and more.
Pusher trays come with various widths to effectively utilize every inch of available space. This allows retailers to offer a wider variety of products and brands, gives customers more options to choose from and encourages them to add more items to their basket.
These strategies can collectively enhance the shopping experience and increase basket sizes in grocery stores—from name brand items to private label choices. To learn more about how cost-effective display innovations from Retail Space Solutions® can elevate the in-store experience, foster sales and reduce shelf maintenance, browse our complete product line.