Want to encourage your customers to add more items to their baskets? Implementing creative grocery store displays and layouts can be a game changer, helping you boost sales and keep customers happy. But how can you get started?
Grocery store displays are more than just stacking products on a shelf. When you use displays properly, you can inspire, educate, and engage your customers. By strategically placing items, creating visually appealing arrangements, and providing helpful information, you can capture shoppers' attention and encourage them to spend more time — and money — in your store.
In this post, we'll share five creative grocery store display ideas that are proven to boost basket sizes. These ideas will give you everything you need to step up your in-store merchandising game.
Benefits of Creative Grocery Store Displays
Before we explore creative grocery store displays you can use to increase sales in your store, let’s consider the importance of displays and store layout in general: Why are displays so important in grocery stores?
Your store layout and product displays are essentially silent salespeople. They work 24/7 to attract attention, provide information, and influence purchasing decisions. A well-designed display can turn a browser into a buyer, introduce customers to new products, and increase the average transaction value.
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Let's dive into some of the key benefits of investing in creative grocery store displays:
- Increased product visibility: Well-designed displays act like spotlights, drawing shoppers' eyes to specific products. Use your displays to highlight deals, new releases, or high-margin items.
- Enhanced customer experience: Visually appealing displays can make shopping in your store a more pleasant experience. Visual touches like well-arranged displays and interesting product placements can make shopping more enjoyable for your customers.
- Improved product organization: Well-organized displays help customers navigate your store efficiently, reducing frustration and saving time. Logical product organization also helps your staff with restocking and inventory management, improving overall store efficiency.
- Increased sales and profitability: Effective displays can boost the sales of featured products. Cross-merchandising displays, which showcase complementary items together (think pasta, sauce, and Parmesan cheese), can encourage impulse purchases and increase the average basket size.
- Competitive differentiation: Unique, themed displays or those showcasing local or specialty products can become talking points, attracting customers looking for a more interesting shopping experience.
With these benefits in mind, it's clear that investing time and resources into creative grocery store displays is more than worth it. But what does this look like in practice? How can you leverage these benefits in your store? Let's explore some creative grocery store display ideas that you might try to elevate your merchandising game and boost your sales.
1. Meal Solution Displays
The first creative display idea is merchandising by setting up meal kit displays. This display would involve putting together all the necessary ingredients for a complete meal at a single table or endcap.
Meal solution displays can help you increase customer satisfaction by offering them an easy, one-stop shopping experience while also boosting your sales across multiple product categories. For an extra bonus, consider adding recipe cards or QR codes linking to online cooking instructions.
You can decide which types of meal solution displays to set up using your point of sale (POS) data. Analyze past sales data to identify the product categories most popular with your customer base. Then, select your meals from these top-selling key ingredients.
You can also use advanced point of sale features like bundling and mix and match pricing to create meal kits sold at a lower price point than all the ingredients sold separately, incentivizing more sales.
Example:
You might set up a "Taco Night" display. Start with hard and soft taco shells set up by a standing cooler. Fill the cooler with ground beef, shredded cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and onions. Then, include jars of salsa, packets of taco seasoning, and cans of refried beans. Add bags of tortilla chips and bottles of Mexican-style beer or soft drinks to complete the meal.
2. Seasonal Theme Displays
Another display you can consider for your grocery store is a seasonal theme display. When you align your merchandising with changing seasons, holidays, or local events, you can take advantage of your customers’ current mindset. This alignment helps you encourage impulse purchases based on mood.
Develop displays that showcase seasonal products and create an attractive atmosphere in your store. Use seasonal produce, themed non-perishables, relevant non-food items, decorations, and other elements to create a cohesive display that gets your customers in the seasonal spirit.
Your point of sale system can help you build your seasonal displays, as well. Analyze historical sales data to anticipate seasonal trends and inform your inventory decisions. Use flexible pricing features to implement time-sensitive promotions to create a sense of urgency around seasonal items.
Example:
Consider setting up a “Back to School" display in early September. Start with a selection of lunchbox-friendly items such as individually packaged snacks, juice boxes, and fruit cups. Include sandwich-making essentials like sliced bread, peanut butter, jelly, and deli meats. If your store carries non-food items, you can add school supplies such as notebooks, pens, and backpacks. To round out the display, include quick breakfast options like cereal bars and instant oatmeal packets.
Related Read: 6 Proven Holiday Promotion Ideas for Small Businesses
3. Local Product Spotlight
Another creative grocery store display that works well for independent grocers is including a local product section or spotlight table. Carrying local products is one of the things that sets your store apart from the big box stores, so why not show that off?
Create displays that feature products from local farmers, artisans, or small businesses. Accompany the products with informative signage that tells the story of the producers, their methods, and what makes their products special. This approach adds more than product value, sharing a narrative that resonates with your customers and reminds them why they choose to shop small.
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Analyze sales data to identify which local items are most popular. Feature these items alongside less popular local items to try to boost sales of both and sell that slower-moving product. You can also use your point of sale system to set up special promotions for local products.
Example:
You might implement a "Local Cheese Board” display. Collect locally sourced cheeses and display them with small-batch crackers, local jams, and any wines or craft beer pairings from local breweries or wineries.
4. Health and Wellness Displays
Health and wellness have been a market trend for over a decade, and we don’t see it going away anytime soon. As a result, creating a health and wellness display can help draw in customers and speak to your more health-minded customers.
Consider featuring organic, gluten-free, vegan, or other specialty diet products. But remember, when you’re creating a health and wellness display, it’s not just about putting healthy products together on a table: you need to provide information and inspiration for healthy living to speak to your health-minded audience.
Include informational materials about the health benefits of featured products and provide suggestions for incorporating them into a balanced diet. This approach positions your store as a knowledgeable partner in your customers' wellness journeys.
You can use your POS system to track trends in health food purchases. Watch for emerging trends and adjust your product mix accordingly. You can also use your sales data to create targeted marketing campaigns for these consumers, offering personalized coupons or recommendations for new health foods based on their shopping history.
Related Read: 8 Trends That Will Define the Grocery Industry
Example:
Create a “Superfood Smoothie Station” in your produce section! Display seasonal fruits alongside common smoothie veggies like avocado or kale. Include products like yogurt, supplements, and protein powders, and set out recipe cards with ideas for smoothies for various purposes, like a Vitamin C boost or high protein.
5. Interactive Tasting Displays
Finally, you might use a grocery store classic: an interactive tasting display!
These displays are tried and true, and they’re a staple in the industry for a reason. They are a great way to introduce new products, seasonal offerings, or store-brand items. Letting customers sample your products before purchase removes some of the doubt and risk in trying something new and can boost sales of the featured products.
When you set up your tasting display, be sure to include informative materials such as product descriptions, tasting notes, and pairing suggestions. Staff these displays with knowledgeable employees who can answer questions, provide recommendations, and encourage purchases.
Use your POS system to track the effectiveness of your tasting displays. Monitor which sampled products lead to the most sales, helping you refine your tasting strategy. You can also set up special promotions for sampled items to encourage immediate purchases.
Example:
You might set up an “Artisinal Chocolates” tasting display. Include a range of local and gourmet chocolates, allowing customers to taste the best offerings from your candy aisle before making their purchases. You can also set up common pairings like wine options or cheeses beside the display to encourage cross-selling purchases.
Making the Most of Your Grocery Store Displays
You know that every inch of your store space counts. As we've explored, creative and strategic displays can be game changers when it comes to attracting new customers, retaining loyal shoppers, and boosting your bottom line. The five display ideas we've discussed are just the beginning of what's possible when you approach in-store merchandising with creativity and purpose.
However, to truly maximize the impact of your displays, you need more than just creativity. You need a robust point of sale system to help pull data-driven insights to inform your decisions and measure your success.
Enter IT Retail, a POS solution built specifically for grocery stores like yours. Our system goes beyond processing transactions. It provides the advanced reporting and analytics you need to understand customer behavior, track product performance, and make informed merchandising decisions.
Schedule a demo of IT Retail today to see how you can take your merchandising and grocery store displays to the next level with real-time data.
