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It’s the most wonderful treat season!
Are you capitalizing on this prime time to sell more treats and drive profitable sales in your stores?
November 2, 2021
3 Min Read
Sponsored Content
Sponsored by Nestle Purina
As temperatures cool and the leaves change, we enter the time of the year when consumers are looking for more ways to create special moments with those they love. For pet owners, this typically leads to an increase of treat purchases with December holidays prompting the highest sales volume treat weeks of the year. But it’s not just winter holidays that drive treat sales—Halloween and Valentine’s Day are also timely sales drivers for the category.
Studies have also shown that consumers are more willing to indulge and spend more on themselves and their pets during key seasons and around the holidays. Grocers can capitalize on the timely bumps with limited holiday items, seasonal flavors, themed packaging and displays. Purina has many seasonal treat items for pets including Beggin’® holiday variety packs, Friskies® Party Mix® seasonal flavors and the 12 Days of Treats and 24 Days of Treats Holiday Advent Calendars.
Treats is a category that has always held great potential for retailers as a basket builder and profit driver. The bright spot for retailers is that treats are an incremental purchase for consumers, and our data indicates that the more treats consumers have, the more they’ll treat. For year-round coverage, ensure you have a variety of treats including crunchy, meaty, long lasting and functional so that consumers can select multiple treats for the various occasions. Purina has developed several innovative treats for each category including Prime® Bones... (which are safe, long-lasting natural chews dogs will love without the potential hazards of treating with animal bones, antlers or rawhides), and Fancy Feast® Savory Cravings, which provide the savory flavors your cat will love in a special break-apart form.
There are multiple ways to capitalize on the growth of treats. Below are some strategies retailers can leverage to capture the valuable dog treat buyer.
Cross-promotion. Retailers can start by bringing in new households with dry pet food cross-promotions focusing on their health benefits and ingredient story.
Disruption. Treats are more likely to be an unplanned purchase than dog and cat food, which means it is beneficial to disrupt consumers on their shopper journey. Try signage and secondary displays to disrupt the shopper in-store. For online shoppers, banner ads, popups on food pages and add to basket at checkout are beneficial tactics.
Timing. Now, more than ever, consumers want to create those special moments treats provide year-round. Pet retailers should ensure treats are part of their monthly merchandising programs in order to stimulate incremental sales and profits.
Multiples pricing. Because treat consumers are not as price sensitive, stimulate additional purchases by using multiples pricing. Instead of suggesting a $3.49 retail price either in ad or everyday, change to 2/$7.00 and see the incremental purchases and profits soar.
Variety. For treat buyers, variety is key. Dog treat buyers, on average, feed treats eight times a week. Half of buyers reported having two or more varieties (crunchy, meaty, dental, long lasting or niche) on hand, and 60% of buyers reported having two to five packages on hand.
Cat treat consumption has grown and is driven primarily by crunchy form and larger sizes. But variety remains important as half of cat treat consumers report looking for something new.
Are you capitalizing on this prime time to sell more treats and drive profitable sales in your stores? Please contact your Purina sales rep for a customized annual plan to take advantage starting today.
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