Cut, slice, chop, peel, wash and enjoy. These are all terms used when talking about produce and what consumers do once they get their produce home. Cross merchandising general merchandise items within produce departments presents a great opportunity for retailers and ultimately consumers.
Offering GM items next to relevant produce items provides both increased incremental and impulse sales for the retailer, and convenience for the shopper. GM items have a high margin and can help build experimental departments. Therefore, this opportunity can create a positive impact on your stores through sales, customer perception and ease of shopping.
Did you know that bananas, melons, apples and berries are some of the top-selling produce items? VMC offers a variety of pre-packed cooking gadget displays that allow for easy cross merchandising and compliment these popular produce items. Good Cook has a great variety of gadgets including: melon taps, pineapple corers, strawberry hullers, apple slicers and produce saver bags.
It’s important to know that more than half of customer shopping trips take place around the perimeter of the store. Placing cross merchandised products in high traffic areas like produce is key to successfully implementing a successful cross merchandising plan.
Retailers should invest in GM and consider cross merchandising within their produce sections and create excitement around the products. Tell a story and provide a solution for customers such as: the shopper buys apples to make an apple pie, and instead of going to a completely different aisle to find an apple slicer, the apple slicers are conveniently placed in the clear view of the shopper and they think, “this will be handy,” and put it in their carts. Both the shopper and the store are happy with the additional purchase.
Please contact your VMC sales representative for information on Good Cook gadget and tools for your product department.
