What is in this article?:
- Independents Drive Sales With New Merchandising
- Event Merchandising at The Markets
“It’s a matter of in-store engagement. We know our customers better than anyone else, so we looked at the reasons many items weren’t performing at their peak and then used category management to figure out what each customer wanted.”
— Steve Henig, VP, corporate merchandising and marketing, Wakefern
LAS VEGAS — In an effort to boost sales in Center Store, Wakefern Food Corp. is engaging in several pilot tests at member-owned ShopRite stores to reinvent their aisles category-by-category, an executive at the Keasbey, N.J.-based cooperative told a workshop session last week at the 30th annual convention of the National Grocers Association here.
After rearranging pet-related food and nonfood items a year ago “to engage customers the way they want to buy,” sales at the test stores rose three times over what they were at stores where the changes had not been made, said Steve Henig, vice president, corporate merchandising and marketing, Wakefern.
As a result, the co-op has launched similar pilots over the past six to eight months in other categories, including baby food and household items, Henig explained. “We are not adding any extra space to those categories — just realigning what we already have,” he said.
It’s a matter of micromanaging to achieve the sales results it wants, Henig said. “We want to make sure what we offer is relevant to today’s shoppers, so we use loyalty cards and other newer tools to micro-manage the information to get customers to buy more.
Read more: Selling Local Is Good for Business, Retailers Say
“It’s a matter of in-store engagement. We know our customers better than anyone else, so we looked at the reasons many items weren’t performing at their peak and then used category management to figure out what each customer wanted.”
Speaking at the same workshop — on how to increase sales and basket size — Andy Knoblauch, senior vice president, sales and marketing, for Coborn’s Inc., St. Cloud, Minn., said his company tries to boost sales through a program called One More Item (OMI), in which it encourages store personnel to develop sales-boosting programs by offering cash prizes.
One winning store used unique displays and cross-merchandising to increase sales by 1.24 items per customer per week, he noted.
Coborn’s is moving into a second phase of OMI, at the stores’ request, by sending out shippers every week with special items, like coffee-brewing machines, around which to build merchandising programs, Knoblauch said.
