Simple Tips to Improve Sales at Your Supermarket

Anyone who sets up a supermarket does so for one purpose – to make sales and be profitable. If you are not getting the kind of sales you want or think you should be making, this article is just for you. We shall be attempting to provide you with a few tips that have been proven to improve sales at grocery stores and supermarkets.

What is a Supermarket?

Understanding exactly what we mean by supermarkets is very important as we move forward. A supermarket usually refers to a somewhat large (larger than a grocery store) shop that offers self-service shopping. A wide variety of products are sold here and these products are usually segmented into similar groupings and displayed according to these segmentation.

Customers walk through the shop picking out the things they need and when they are done, they come to the cash register at the checkout point to have their selection tallied for payment. The purchases are then paid for by the customer and packaged by the cashier, freeing the customer to leave with their purchase.

You can read more about it here.

Current Challenges Faced by Supermarkets

Before we can begin to look at simple steps that any supermarket can take to improve sales, we will first attempt to look at some common problems that they may also be facing.

Some of these include:

Inventory and Stock Keeping

Keeping proper inventory is a major concern for any supermarket. Without proper inventory, loss of products arising from either theft or carelessness will be rampant. This is at the top of the challenges that these stores are always trying to stay on top of.

Sources for Competitively Priced Products

Competitive pricing of good is one major thing that encourages sales. However, to be able to sell at competitive prices, the store must find sources where they can get these products at prices that will allow them sell low and still stay profitable.

This means that they are always in search of sources with better price offers to enable them stay competitive.

High Wage Costs

When the state sets a minimum wage, everyone has to comply regardless of how well their business is doing. Supermarkets are forced to pay minimum wage so the struggle to meet this and other obligations while also selling at competitive prices puts them under serious pressure.

Internet Shopping

The sales that most of these stores make depend on the foot traffic into their stores. However, with more and more shoppers opting to shop online, this foot traffic appears to be gradually but steadily decreasing. You can read about this here: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-problems-of-a-supermarket.

Tips to Improve Sales

With the challenges listed above and those not listed, how can a supermarket improve sales so as to stay profitable? Let’s look at a few ideas.

Advertising

Every business has to advertise to get new business and supermarkets are no different. We mentioned the need for increased foot traffic earlier and this can be achieved by employing the use of strategic advertising.

Advertising will not only increase the foot traffic to your business, it will also improve brand recognition which will eventually lead to increased foot traffic and by implication, increased sales.

Offers and Promotions

People like free or cheap stuff. Find ways to offer discounts, promotional offers and even giveaways. You can partner with manufacturers to have new products given away as promotional samples. You can also use in-store or downloadable coupons to attract shoppers. Your aim is to get people into your store and once they are there, finding ways to get them to make purchases.

Create Loyalty Programs

Creating a loyalty program where shoppers amass points that can be converted to cash, gifts or discounts can help you grow your customer retention rate. The fact that they are getting something back from all their purchases can be a motivating factor for the most avid shoppers. These interestingly are your main target audience.

Strategic Product Placement

Product placement is a critical part of any supermarket. According to some studies on the behavior of shoppers, it has been found that rearranging the positions of the products in your store can improve sales. The reason for this is that as customers search for the new location of the products, they come across other products they may be interested in.

If the products remain where they have always been, customers will simply walk straight to the things they need while ignoring other items.

Another thing to consider is the way these items are displayed. It is important to display the products at the customer’s eye level. LemonTree Products offers some very excellent display solutions that will help make your products more visible to your customers.

Use Large Carts

This is something like a trick that gets most customers to buy more than they planned. Having very few items in a large cart sends a subtle message to the customer that they need to make more purchases.

Employ Disruptive Ads

One thing you do not want your customers doing is spending too much time thinking or deliberating on whether or not to purchase a product. One way to stop this from happening is by having disruptive ads play over the public address system, having digital displays that can distract the customer or having one of your sales reps walk up to the customer and ask “how may I help you?”

By the time the customer turns back to the product after the distraction, the chances of them deciding to make a purchase will have increased.

Understand Shoppers’ Psychology

Aside from the examples given above, there are other psychological approaches you can employ. This involves understanding a shopper’s psychology. If you have a section in your supermarket where expensive items are sold, have the sales assistants there behave in a very official and somewhat snobbish manner. Studies have shown that people respond better to this kind of behavior when it comes to expensive items as snobbery is naturally linked to being rich and successful.

Another thing to note is that your customers do not necessary need to have too many options. They may like it, but it does not work for you. A study has shown that too many options confuse the customer, making them stay too long at a point and maybe end up not making a purchase. Give them just enough options to be able to make a quick choice and move on.

Serve Online Shoppers

We mentioned earlier that one of the challenges supermarkets are facing today is a decline in physical customers as people are gradually opting to shop online. Well, they say if Mohammed will not go to the mountain, the mountain can go to Mohammed.

Creating an online face for your supermarket where online shoppers can place their orders and have them delivered to them can significantly improve your sales.

Conclusion

A lot of the tips we have shared above are quite simple and things you can implement immediately. The competition in this industry is stiff but with the right adjustments, you can still continue to break even.