Supermarket Perimeter - August 2019 - 10

Say it's your night to cook, which you just remembered on your way
home from work. You pick out some chicken from the deli prepared
department of your local grocery store, and the clerk tells you what it
would cost to add a couple of sides and some dinner rolls to make it
into a meal.
Or the butcher points out the heat-and-eat twice-baked potatoes in
the counter as he's wrapping your steaks.
Most of the time, if done well, consumers will appreciate a good
"suggestive sell." And the fresh perimeter, more than anywhere else in
the store, presents the perfect opportunity for using suggestive selling
to make shoppers' lives easier and to increase sales.

Make it a meal
In the retail perimeter, it's fairly uncommon to see employees upselling
or engaging in other practices to get consumers to buy something
else to go with their initial purchase, says Neil Stern, a consultant with
Chicago-based McMillan Doolittle.

Don't overlook the
power of solution displays
as a powerful selling tool.
It provides suggestions to
the consumer - the basil
next to the tomato next
to the mozzarella cheese,
for example - as well
as makes it easier
for the employee to
make a suggestion."

A low unemployment rate is among the causes, he says.
"With labor becoming more scare, retailers tend to focus more on
productivity per department as a key metric. I think it's a little less common today, unfortunately."
"Unfortunate," Stern says, because upselling is a real chance for retailers to generate extra, unexpected sales, particularly in the ever-growing
category of easy meal prep.
"The best examples allow customers to seamlessly assemble meals,"
Stern says. "Make a wine pairing with a meat selection. Suggest sides to
accompany an entrée. Create all of the ingredients for a caprese salad,
including grocery items like olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette."
One way retailers can integrate upselling into their daily operations,
Stern says, is by training employees to work across categories - deli,
meat, seafood, etc. It can also be as simple as providing tips. "When a
customer buys ﬂank steak, see if they need fajita ﬁ xings," he says.
Whatever the method, the key is to start doing it. In today's evolving
marketplace, it's even more crucial.
"It's incredibly important, particularly as online services are in some
ways able to do this better," Stern says. "And meal kits are essentially
stepping in to meet this need."
There can be challenges to upselling, but Stern says the pros clearly
outweigh the cons.
"It's generally a win/win, particularly when the suggestion feels like
a natural output of the customer interaction. The only challenge is if it
feels forced. I always ask customers if they need a sauce that the grocer
is selling vs. really trying to interpret a customers' need."
Good questions, Stern says, are open-ended ones. Are you planning
on grilling tonight? Is there anything else you might need with your
steak? That's a better approach than the "hard sell," he says.

GERTRUDDA - STOCK.ADOBE.COM

Neil Stern, McMillan Doolittle

10 - AUGUST 2019

www.supermarketperimeter.com

http://www.supermarketperimeter.com

Supermarket Perimeter - August 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Supermarket Perimeter - August 2019