How To Increase Fresh Produce Sales: 5 Tips & Tools
Increasing fresh produce sales can be a real challenge, even as more people make an effort to eat healthier.
This observation from many grocery store and supermarket owners is at odds with the data. The U.S. fruit and vegetable market is growing at a rate of 4% annually and is especially popular among millennials and younger Americans.
While much of that growth is driven by online sales, recent customer surveys and industry research provide some crucial insights into boosting fresh produce sales in-store.
In this article, we summarize some of the key takeaways for grocery stores, small markets, and supermarkets, along with some practical tips to drive more fresh produce sales in your store.
Fresh Produce Challenges in 2024
Many people want to eat healthier and include more fresh fruits and vegetables in their diet. Yet inflation and other pressures are changing consumer shopping habits, creating a ripple effect on fresh produce sales.
Understanding these consumer habits and worries is key to overcoming them and boosting sales. Some of the major factors impacting fresh produce sales are:
- Food waste: According to the 2024 Power of Produce report, over half of American shoppers buy less produce to avoid spoilage and waste. Similarly, people buy more long-lasting veggies like potatoes or snackables like berries.
- Shopping lists vs. impulse buys: Many people go grocery shopping with a specific list of items, but the vast majority of shoppers still make unplanned produce purchases.
- Discounts are king: With inflation squeezing budgets, discounted items unsurprisingly perform well, highlighting the importance of sales and promotions in the produce section.
- Lack of knowledge: Many shoppers want to buy more fruits and vegetables but need guidance on how to use them in cooking or as healthy snacks.
While inflation continues to drive prices of most items upward, produce prices remain below average. This gives grocery store and supermarket owners a golden opportunity to improve their bottom line by leveraging fresh produce sales.
5 Tips & Tools To Boost Fresh Produce Sales
Before going into specifics, a question: is your fresh produce fresh? It’s hard to give actionable advice on overcoming customers’ challenges and boosting produce sales if your fruits and vegetables don’t look appetizing in the first place.
Follow fresh produce inventory best practices to avoid spoilage and food waste and put out produce that customers love. Once you’ve mastered the basics of produce management, it’s time to find ways to improve sales.
That’s where these five tips and tools come in.
1. Understand Your Customers
The more you understand your customers’ shopping habits, the better decisions you can make. Use the sales data on your point of sale (POS) system to understand key metrics like:
- Bestselling produce items
- Average purchase amounts
- Peak hours
- Average inventory churn
- Seasonal trends
…and more.
If you know which produce your customers come back for time and again, you can ensure those items stay in stock. Set automated low stock alerts to avoid stockouts and know your peak hours to get your produce section ready for any surge in demand.
The reporting and analytics tools on your POS system are also invaluable for optimizing the layout of your produce section. Keep seasonal favorites and bestsellers in easy-to-find locations while still spreading them out. This will decrease aisle congestion while encouraging shoppers to browse more, which can lead to more impulse buys.
2. Leverage Promotions and Discounts
According to the Power of Produce report, shoppers gravitate towards sales signs, especially in the produce section. Discounts and sales serve several valuable functions:
- They encourage impulse buys
- They help you move slow-moving inventory
- They highlight less visited areas in the produce section
- They drive upselling
Use bright, eye-catching signage to capture customers’ attention. General discounts are an effective type of promotion, but not the only one at your disposal. Try buy one get one (BOGO) offers, buy at least X for a fixed price, daily specials, or other types of limited promotions.
Varying your in-store and online promotions is an effective way to keep customers coming back, so be creative. You should also use the sales data on your POS system to continually monitor the effectiveness of your promotions.
3. Use Displays To Educate Shoppers
Most people want to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables but don’t know where to start. Make your store a helpful resource for recipes, snacking tips, and more using effective signage. Create displays with QR codes or links that educate customers on how to best use a certain type of produce.
This strategy is especially useful for produce with a shorter shelf life or products that aren’t common in the U.S. market. You can also inform customers how to best store different types of produce, to help overcome their fear of food waste.
As always, storytelling or educational signs are best paired with discounts. The sign might give them confidence in trying out a new type of vegetable and the discount will give them the extra push they need to make a purchase.
4. Showcase Your Produce Online
People are making more in-person visits to stores for produce, but are also more cautious about food waste. This results in shoppers checking if produce is available online before going into the store. If a customer’s desired item is out of stock, especially one that was on sale, they’ll be annoyed in a best-case scenario and not come back at worst.
Use an inventory management system that consolidates your in-store and online inventory in real time to ensure stock levels are accurate. That way, any time and anywhere you make a sale, your inventory will immediately update.
Your website is also an excellent place to educate consumers on using different types of produce without taking up physical space in the store. Consider fleshing out your product descriptions with suggested uses, links to recipes, and more. It’s also a good idea to include similar information in newsletters or as part of your social media marketing.
5. Cross-Selling With Other Products
A recipe might be great for some customers but not all. For customers who aren’t confident in the kitchen but still want to eat healthily, cross-selling may be the answer.
Pair produce items with complementary products (e.g., dips, herbs, yogurts, meats) to give shoppers practical and actionable food suggestions. If you feature a recipe, use your POS system to create a recipe pack that combines all the key ingredients at a discount.
Related Read: Grocery Store Profit Margins: How To Maximize Profits in Your Store
You could also take advantage of seasonal shifts as cross-selling opportunities. In the summer, place juicers next to citrus for fresh drinks. Around Thanksgiving, pair roast vegetable favorites with complementary herbs and spices.
Sometimes encouraging a sale is as easy as putting an idea in customers’ heads. Cross-selling is great for increasing average order value (AOV) and eliminating some of the hesitancy inherent in the produce section.
Understand Your Customers and Boost Fresh Produce Sales With IT Retail
Once you understand the factors that stop customers from buying more produce, it’s easier to tackle the issue. To boost fresh produce sales you can:
- Leverage technology
- Educate customers
- Encourage impulse buys
- Maintain your online presence
Following these best practices will make your store both a place to shop and a go-to hub for healthy eating that shoppers will return to.
Industry-specific technology helps you use all the tools at your disposal to drive more produce sales, including product bundles, reports, custom discounts, customer loyalty, and more.
IT Retail is built on 25 years of experience helping small to mid-size grocers, supermarkets, and specialty markets manage their business and improve the customer experience. With a wealth of easy-to-use features, e-commerce integrations, and powerful partnerships, we strive to give businesses the tools they need to compete.
Schedule a demo with our experts today to see how IT Retail’s user-friendly features can help you increase fresh produce sales today.