Summary:
Visual merchandising for grocery brands is never an easy task! Shoppers tend to fit in their weekly grocery run tightly between work and the weekend or vice versa. And in their hurry to get through the shopping list, they whizz past your visual merchandising team's painstakingly designed displays. What's wrong here? How can grocery brands create a stress-free environment, improve the shopping experience and induce customers to have a positive emotional connection with their brand? Read on for some cart-stopping grocery store display ideas!
Grocery shopping is a mundane must-do activity. The longer the list, the more stressful it gets. (Most shoppers don't usually look forward to their weekly grocery run). Unfortunately, emergency grab-and-go purchases leave no room for casual browsing.
The typical shopper walks through a store with only 200-300 milliseconds of eye contact with displays at a time. The decision to pick up a product or choose a brand is made in just three to seven seconds. So it's no surprise that six in ten in-store purchases can be classified as impulse buys.
That's why you need attention-grabbing display ideas to make shoppers bring their carts to a screeching halt and take that detour to pick up a product from your promotional displays!
Cart-Stoppers! Grocery Store Display Ideas to Stop Shoppers in their Tracks
Immersive or interactive experiences
Who isn't grateful for a recipe suggestion or a quick and nutritious one-pot meal idea? Use informational signage or a freestanding kiosk to highlight a quick recipe in 2-3 steps. Place this next to the featured product shelving to engage shoppers while they strike off one item off their lists! Similarly, live recipes prepared from ingredients that are on promotion are experiences that give shoppers a break from rushing through the aisles and make them spend some time at your featured product display.
Displays that engage the senses
Sampling events, taste tests, and tear-off recipe cards all engage shoppers and bring their carts to a stop. Sensory experiences that go beyond mere product shelves are important. And one can think up tons of ideas to launch sensory experiences in a grocery store. It may be smelling coffee beans or spices, feeling the texture of various grains and flours or tasting exotic fruits or seasonal vegetables—the possibilities are endless!
Location, location, location!
Locate your displays strategically across the shop floor. Remember that your physical store is a critical touchpoint to reach and influence consumers. Research shows that 76% of all purchase decisions are made in-store, and 68% of all in-store purchases are impulse driven.
Strategically placed product displays are critical for increasing sales and shopper engagement:
Displays housed at the entrance (often referred to as the power wall)
Island displays interspersed across the floor
Point-of-purchase displays at the checkout
Seek higher ground
Placing display signs above product displays is a way to achieve a clear line of sight across aisles and through the store. It's also a good way of getting busy shoppers to look up from scrambling through vegetable and fruit bins and engage with your brand communication. Make overhead banners bold, vibrant, and eye-catching and use vertical space in addition to the shop floor space. For example, a hanging lightbox above the product shelf can effectively display nutritional info or health benefits.
Keeping in rhythm with the seasons
Seasonal promotions build excitement and create an ambiance that prompts shoppers to pick up featured products. Gondolas, endcap displays, and storefront displays are unmissable opportunities to build hype for the season's best produce. For example, in-season fruit displays can have vibrant imagery showing a family enjoying the fruit or its juice. Enticing customers to buy the fruit even if it's not on their shopping list can boost seasonal sales. TLC's modular display system and easy-to-change graphic frames are ideal for flexible, seasonal displays.
Use colors innovatively
Build a display around one bold color theme rather than busy displays with many colors and graphic components. Less is more in retail displays. Choose a color or color palette that signifies the season or has an association with the brand. Drive home your brand's message in a minimalistic manner that makes it stand out. Create eye-catching displays with TLC's bold and vibrant SEG fabric prints.
Pique their interest
Find a way to make shoppers look forward to what's in store at their favorite grocery—a sequential display or a co-branded promotion, or new product partnerships can drive up interest in regular shoppers. For example, plan an in-store event by inviting a nutritional expert or dietician to offer information about ingredients and their health benefits. Or consider launching a mega discount promotion sponsored by multiple manufacturers across a specific product line.
Some other Innovative Signs and Display Ideas for Your Grocery Store:
Shopping cart promos or ads on buggy corrals
Grocery shopping carts or buggies can carry sponsored graphic messages or advertisements. Every shopper needs to push along a cart while they shop, so using carts to advertise your product puts your brand prominently in front of people as they walk around the store. Similar advertising opportunities are also available on cart stands or buggy corrals.
Bold price alert signs
Announce special promotions and sales with bold informational signs placed on tabletops or counters. Eye-catching price alert signs literally make your pricing promotion pop out! Shoppers are known to pick up a product that's on discount even if it doesn't feature in their shopping list.
Floor decals
Promotional space is precious. Once you've got standing displays, wall-mounted displays, and even hanging signs, it's time to test out floor signage! Talk to TLC for more ideas on how to incorporate signs and banners throughout your grocery store.
The Impact of In-Store Displays
When we look at some of the statistics that shopassociation.org has published, it becomes evident that brands have to overcome many challenges to stand out from the crowd. They need innovative visual merchandising solutions if they are to win in retail.
Consider this:
Over 30,000 new product SKUs are added each year.
Shoppers are bombarded with over 3,000 messages every day from a host of marketing channels.
You have just 3 seconds to make an impact with your in-store displays.
That's why it is more important now than ever to use retail signs and displays effectively to improve performance.
The impact of in-store displays on sales is hard for retailers to ignore. As the old saying goes: It's the last 5% effort that makes the difference between success and failure. If you relate this to shopper marketing, that last 5% is what happens at the point of purchase—just before shoppers choose what to buy. An effective promotion can mean increased cart value, last-minute cart additions, impulse purchases of limited-period offers, and loyalty sign-ups.
A study reported by shopassociation.org showed that stores with a planned display strategy saw a 193% increase in sales as compared to a no-promotions period.
TLC: Innovative Grocery Store Display Ideas
While the traditional rectangular bins and boxes are more of a norm, grocery and supermarket displays can include a variety of new-age display systems such as multi-sided or winged display shelves, wall-mounted displays and banners, tabletop informational signs, and backlit hanging displays.
The Look Company offers a range of state-of-the-art visual engagement solutions for your grocery brand.
We help your merchandisers leverage the best grocery store display ideas to increase cart value, engage shoppers, and keep them coming back for more!