Supermarket Merchandising for Snacks

In the highly competitive supermarket industry, it’s important to always come up with new ways to merchandise your products. Following buyer trends and patterns and thinking beyond the traditional shelf space for snacks can help boost sales and build a loyal following.

Buyers are shopping the perimeter of the supermarket and snacks merchandised in the produce section can capitalize on healthy eaters to introduce new snacks. It’s especially a perfect fit for vegetable and fruit chips. We try to merchandise our dried fruits and nuts in the produce section whenever possible since we believe that people who shop for produce are more interested in healthy eating.

Dried fruit is always a great substitute for fresh fruit, especially when fresh fruit is not in season or people are looking for fruit with a longer shelf-life that’s more convenient. About 40 to 50% of U.S. retailers have dried fruit as a category in produce, and this percent has been stable during the past few years. Dried fruit can often serve as an alternative to salty and sugary snacking. For us at Truly Good Foods, dried fruit category sales have shown consistent 10 percent-plus growth for the past three years.

Trail mixes can often be an impulse item so placing them on their own rack in the front of the produce department lets the shopper see it quick.  Consider putting nuts, dried fruit and trail mixes together since many times consumers will grab multiple items, adding to the ticket total.

Finally, try to grab some space near the checkout aisles. While consumers may look for trail mixes in the produce department or with snacks in the grocery aisle, they may also grab a convenient package of trail mix on their way out, instead of a candy bar.