Steps for Success

AS THIS WHITE PAPER HAS DEMONSTRATED, selecting the right merchandising fixtures can help to increase product sales and thus maximize ROI, if planned, executed, and measured effectively. Nevertheless, retailers must pay close attention to the overall in-store customer experience, which often dictates whether a customer will return to that store. Attractive fixtures and displays can help create a more inviting environment for customers, but many retailers have considered fixtures to be nothing more than a commodity.

However, the trend is changing, according to Mike Niemtzow, CFO and founder of WindowsWear. “People have thought about fixtures as literally just tools to hold merchandise, but not necessarily represent or reflect on the brand,” he explains. “There has been demand from certain smaller retailers and brands to have more artistic types of fixtures—fixtures that reflect who they feel that they are. They are literally looking for artists that they feel are a good fit in terms of creating fixtures that are still within their budgets but offer something more than just a commodified fixture that can be purchased in bulk or low price,” he notes.

To stay competitive, retailers need to incorporate more creative and unique features in store fixtures and displays in order that customers can experience the excitement and appeal that they are looking for in retail settings.

While retailers can (and should) engage shoppers with creative design, the overall marketing goal is to persuade them to buy. To that end, following are several strategies to consider that can be used to accomplish merchandising goals whether used alone or in tandem (see chart at right).

Remember, while store footprints may be getting smaller and budgets remaining tight, retailers can still make a big impact on sales and ROI by employing some thoughtful merchandising strategies presented here.

Attract Shoppers To Product

• Attract shoppers by creating stopping power and standing out at the shelf. When it comes to fixtures and displays, this includes considering color, shape, messaging hierarchy, imagery, and shoppability.

Create Impulse Purchase Opportunities

• These displays are designed to persuade shoppers to buy something—typically something not on their list already. Placement within the store may come into play more than design considerations. Just about anything placed within the cash wrap area at the checkout is used to suggestive sell, thus generate impulse buys.

CREATE CROSS-SELL OPPORTUNITIES

• Cross-selling displays create a convenient shopping experience that typically connects the center aisle with the perimeter such as placing the Oreos next to the milk, for example. Cross-selling displays make it easy for shoppers to pick up items that go together. This is similar to how online shopping works (e.g., “You might also like...” or “Shoppers who like this also bought...”)..

ENCHANCE CO-BRANDING

• Retailers can use endcap displays to cross sell products and preview what shoppers will find down the aisle. This type of co-branded display creates a win-win for the products to co-exist.

SOURCES:

CallisonRTKL Launches Visual Merchandising Services For Retail Clients Worldwide, CallisonRTKL.com (2016)

IBIS World, Retail Store Fixture Dealers in the U.S.

Interviews: Erican Chiang,co-founder,Perfect Fit Meals;Brad Cox,director of sales & marketing,Trion;Ken Kniffen,director of merchandising,Bashas’ supermarkets;Mike Niemtzow,CFO & founder,WindowsWear;RichWildrick, director of engineering,Trion Lesniak, Cheryl. Year in review: in-store merchandising. Retail Environments.

McMillan, Erik. If you can’t measure in-store merchandising you can’t make it better. Shelfbucks.com

North American Retail Hardware Association’s (NRHA), Merchandising for Profit Shop! 2016 Industry Size & Composition Study Shop! 2017 ROI Standards:In-Store Marketing Materials Wood, Matthew. Can store design deliver increased sales and customer loyalty? Off the Wall Co.

About Trion

For over 50 years, Trion Industries Inc. (www.triononline.com) has been manufacturing products that provide targeted merchandising solutions for retail businesses. The earliest concepts ranged from simple one-piece to sophisticated, articulated, straight-entry pegboard hooks. Today Trion fields full lines of auto-feed shelf management systems, cooler and freezer merchandising systems, storewide labeling systems, anti-theft and security fixtures, bar merchandisers, display and scanning hooks, and point-of-purchase display components and hardware. These are just a few of the tens of thousands of different products the company has created since it was founded in 1965 earning more than 120 patents. Trion has been a member of Shop! since 1972.

About Shop!

Shop! (www.shopassociation.org) is the global nonprofit trade association dedicated to enhancing retail environments and experiences. Shop! Represents more than 2,000 member companies worldwide and provides value to the global retail market-place through its leadership in: Research (consumer behavior, trends, and futures); Design (customer experience design, store design, display design, fixture design); Build (manufacturing, construction, materials, methods, logistics, and installation); Marketing (in-store communications, in-store marketing, technology, visual merchandising); and Evaluation (ROI, analytics, recognition/awards).

For additional questions about the information contained in this white paper, please contact us at: mbaumgartner@shopassociation.org or call us at 312-863-2917.

focus on Organic Month. Coinciding with these promotional periods, Natural Grocers runs a semiannual campaign with Washington, D.C.based Beyond Pesticides called Ladybug Love, which lets shoppers donate to the cause of pesticide-free parks and open spaces.

Different Strategies for Different Retailers

Like Natural Grocers, MOM’s Organic Market is a regional chain that focuses solely on organic and natural products. Scott Nash, CEO of the 23-store chain, which is based in Rockville, Md., tells Progressive Grocer that shoppers appreciate the chain’s competitive pricing, especially amid the current economic environment. “We have seen inflation impact our shoppers, and while we’ve had to pass along some of the rising costs to them, we still aim to offer very competitive pricing,” maintains Nash, adding that the retailer has been doing a lot more to cut waste and operate as efficiently as possible, as today’s retailing environment requires.

Nash doesn’t see education as being quite as important for MOM’s Organic Market shoppers, because so many of them already buy into the organic/natural lifestyle. “People don’t go from Doritos and Coke to kale and kombucha overnight,” he asserts. “It’s a journey.” He credits Whole Foods with doing a great job of educating loyal organic and natural shoppers.

According to Nash, he feels very confident about the future of the industry, primarily because organic foods are better for the environment, and also because they’re perceived as being better quality and better for people’s health. He notes that shoppers in his stores are inveterate label readers, so manufacturers will continue to play an important role in making their products as “clean” as possible.

Of course, dedicated natural/organic retailers aren’t the only ones that can serve label-reading shoppers. Take The Kroger Co., for example. While the Cincinnati-based company is much more massive and mainstream in scale, it has served a growing niche by integrating natural and organic products alongside mainstream items, and by developing a private brand dedicated to natural and organic products. The retailer’s Simple Truth brand, which turns 10 this year, is now considered America’s No. 1 natural and organic brand, featuring more than 1,500 items that are free from 101 artificial colors, flavors, preservatives and sweeteners, and contain no artificial ingredients. To mark the anniversary, Kroger offered customers 10 fuel points with all Simple Truth purchases made using a digital coupon during Jan. 18-31.

Last summer, Kroger’s Holly Adrien and Alexandra Trott, of the grocer’s 84.51° division, shared on Progressivegrocer.com that more than 73% of Kroger’s shopping households had purchased an item in the natural/organic category over the past year. Meanwhile, 5 million omni-

Breaking Down Organic Categories

Here’s a look at how specific organic categories performed in 2021, as highlighted in the Washington, D.C.-based Organic Trade Association’s 2022 Organic Industry Survey: channel Kroger shoppers had bought natural and organic items online, and two-thirds of those were brand-new to the category. Among those shoppers, the price-sensitive ones spent more time considering cost while shopping online, from comparing prices to looking for coupons.

Fruits and veggies: Organic fruits and vegetables accounted for 15% of the total product market and brought in more than $21 billion in revenues. This was a 4.5% increase over 2020. Fresh produce and dried beans, fruits and vegetables drove the category, while frozen and canned foods declined slightly as consumers cut back on pantry loading.

Dairy, eggs and meat: After hitting the highest growth rate in more than a decade in 2020, the organic dairy and egg category unsurprisingly leveled off in 2021. These segments remained relatively flat through 2021, although they still outperformed 2019 sales by nearly 11%. Meanwhile, sales of organic meat, including poultry, livestock and seafood, increased by 2.5%, representing nearly $2 billion in annual sales. Organic poultry was the strongest performer, with 4.7% growth.

Packaged and prepared foods, including snacks: Packaged and prepared organic foods experienced an overall decline of around 5% in 2021, representing a shift away from pantry loading and toward more measured purchasing patterns. Organic baby food, which saw more than 11% growth, was the biggest bright spot. Snacks saw healthy growth of 6%, with nutrition bars reaching nearly 15% growth.

Beverages: Organic beverages experienced strong growth of 8%, thanks in part to manufacturers’ ability to adjust quickly to shifting consumer needs and habits. Organic coffee topped the beverage performance chart, with more than 5% growth.

Breads and grains: Organic bread and grain sales tapered off slightly in 2021 as the pandemic boom subsided, but sales were still strong, at $6.2 billion overall. Frozen and fresh breads, the largest subcategory, saw a modest increase of 1.6%.

Nonfoods: Fiber, supplements and personal care products were the dominant performers in nonfoods: Each saw growth rates of between 5.5% and 8.5% in 2021.

To highlight its organic and natural products in stores, Kroger uses signage such as green “plant-based” clings, and also runs special campaigns.

Label Readers on the Rise

Angela Jagiello, director of education and insights at the Washington, D.C.-based Organic Trade Associa-