How Can I Increase Sales in My Grocery Store? Try These Methods

The grocery store industry is increasing in competition as technology advances.

Big box retailers have no trouble staying up to date with the latest trends in technology, but the smaller grocery retailers often struggle to make ends meet. How can we change this? How can the independents win the day?

Here are the top ways to increase sales in your grocery store:

Implement automation technology
Add a loyalty program
Use in-store coupons
Advertise your store’s weekly promotions(truckload Sales, outdoor Produce sales etc.)
Bundle items that make up a family meal, meal-kits or meat bundles
Allow pop up shops to use your location
Create display areas for items with strong retail savings and proper seasonality.‍

If you are looking for more ways to increase your sales, keep reading!

How to Increase Your Grocery Store’s Sales

Grocery stores work on razor-thin margins which make increasing store sales a bit of a challenge because there usually isn’t a surplus of money to be used.

That means whatever investment they have, they need to use it wisely on new revenue-generating projects. Below we’ve listed some of the top methods that won’t break the bank. ‍

1. Implement Automation Software

Grocery automation software is an incredible technology that helps grocery stores automate their manual tasks and processes, reduce human errors, price products accurately.

It’s a tool that pricing coordinators and store managers can use to help their team repurpose their time to focus more on customer-centered activities (what customers really want to see from local independent shops).

This is great news for those small to mid sized grocery stores struggling to stay afloat.

Grocery automation software is what “big box” stores like Walmart, Kroger, and Target use to achieve profitability and reduce losses. They utilize machines and automation to organize their sales data which automatically makes updates to their pricing, ordering, and more. They understand the importance of having a data-backed system to cut down on human error.

At Storewise, we built a powerful grocery automation platform small and medium-sized grocers can use. Read more about our grocery automation software by clicking here. Or, schedule a quick demo with us by clicking here.

2. Include a Loyalty Program

Loyalty programs are a great tool for grocery store owners.

They provide you with valuable information about your customers’ preferences, and also a great way to make sure a customer comes back to your store time and time again.

Ways to Implement Loyalty Programs

Offer discounts for people with loyalty cards only
Introduce ‘points’ that your customers get with every purchase
Provide multiple ways your customers can enroll
Structure non-monetary rewards around your customers values
Make it accessible via mobile app for convenience

It’s rare for a grocery store to not have a loyalty program than it is to have a loyalty program.

3. Use In-Store Coupons

Many people believe that in-store coupons decrease your store profits. We are here to tell you that is not the case.

Your store won’t lose a dime when using coupons. In fact, coupons are a great way to increase your sales. Giving customers coupons can entice them to buy more than originally planned because they know they are getting a good deal.

4. Advertise Your Store’s Weekly Deals

Great deals will only go so far if they are not advertised. Utilize your social media platforms to promote your weekly deals or put ads in the daily paper. Consider printing out the deals and sticking them at a kiosk right as customers walk in.

Here are some suggestions for weekly deals:

Utilize special events such as truck load sales, massive meat sales, and outdoor produce sales
Offer the two-for-the-price-of-one deals from time to time. That one is especially effective because it makes us feel like we’re saving money, even if the price would be pretty much the same if the products were bought separately.
Offer free samples ever so often and ‘buy one — get one for free’

5. Bundle Items Together

Another good way to increase sales in your grocery store is to display products in bundles.

You can use end-of-aisle displays or endcaps for products needed for one meal like spaghetti noodles, tomato sauce, and parmesan.

During the summer months, place sunscreen, flip-flops, and goggles together. During the fall months, you can place graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate together.

This tactic is encouraging consumers to buy all three items at once even if they don’t need them, or it’s a great reminder they can’t have one product without the other.

Finally, consider selling bundles of items such as meat bundles, for example, 25 pounds of different cuts (pork chops, hamburger, etc.). In produce you can do the same thing or combine in one package the fixing for a roast which would include meat and vegetables for the dinner.

6. Allow For Pop-Up Shops

Pop-up shops are becoming more than just a trend. The Pop-Up Republic reports the pop-up shop industry has grown to approximately $10 billion in sales.

Typically they are considered the store within the store but recently have expanded to standalone kiosks and even motorized vehicles.

But how does this apply to a small to midsize grocery store? It’s simple.

Pop-up shops will attract a new set of clientele to your store that you have never had before. They can also boost customer experience, and add a unique feature to your store that others may not have. It will also provide capital and most of these vendors will pay rent.

Ways to Attract Customers to Your Grocery Store

It won’t matter that you have good products at affordable prices if people aren’t drawn to come in.

How can you attract more people to your store?

Ways to Attract Customers into Your Store

Ways To Attract Customers	Avg. Time for ROI	Grocery Stores Practicing This
Implement grocery automation technology	Not able to determine. It differs from store to store	Cosentino’s and Reed’s both use automation software and both have reported better profit margins
Social Media Campaigns	8-12 weeks	Fareway and Kings Food Market are on every single social media platform promoting their store and promotions
Seasonal Ad Campaigns	3-4 months	Northgate Market launched a back to school campaign, and Fareway had a great Christmas campaign last year where they delivered groceries needed to make those traditional meals

Tips to Consider When Attracting Customers

Make sure employees are using their newfound free time beneficially and focusing on customers
Understand the automation software fully so it can be used to its fullest potential
Being on every single social media platform is always beneficial, but pay close attention to your customer base and tailor to them
Learn when your audience will most likely be engaged like for back to school shopping or holidays

Grocery Store Owners & Their Methods

With the landscape of retail continuing to change, we compiled a list of successful grocery store owners who have increased their profit margins with grocery automation software and other methods.

Reed’s Market

Jamie Reed, from Reed’s Market, uses Storewise automation technology and says that he, “would highly recommend them to any of my fellow retailers.”

Grocery automation software is built specifically for retail store owners, which automatically updates their pricing, ordering, and more. It helps them save time and money, as well as reduce human error.

Fareway Stores

Reynolds Cramer, from Fareway Stores, highlights the importance of moving with the times in the retail industry. At first, the store didn’t have an internet presence but they quickly realized that advertising should go through two channels — both on and off the internet:

Cramer said, "Now we're very visible in the community, starting with the graphics on our trucks and our dieticians and our virtual meat counter on our website”

We’re used to ordering food from restaurants over the phone, but why not extend this practice to all small retail stores?

Grain & Vine

Michael Nagdimunov, from Grain & Vine, a boutique wine and spirits store in New York, has introduced ordering and delivery through apps like Postmates, Drizly, and Minibar.

According to the owner, the delivery service increased their revenue by as much as 25%.

Summary

Running an independent grocery store is complex. We have seen great success come from grocery store owners who start implementing automation software throughout their stores.
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We hope the strategies and methods we mentioned above aid in increasing your grocery store sales and profit margins. If you are ready to take the next step in automating your grocery store, start a risk-free trial and we will show you the power of automation technology.