Are you committing retail malpractice?

Don’t ignore healthy center store products. 

Most of us grew up believing that the healthy products could only be found along the parameter of the store. We were taught that any of the products in the center the store were either highly processed, chemically enhanced, or contained artificially fortified ingredients. Remember better living through chemistry? Center store products have been unfairly maligned as a result.

Center store plays a critical role at retail. It supports all of the outlying perimeter categories and provides the key ingredients for every meal solution.  Just as a salad requires salad dressings and toppings, no outdoor barbecue is complete without snacks and drinks. To some, a hot dog is not a meal without your favorite condiment.

Retail is changing and retailers need to change with the times if they want to survive. Consumers are demanding more from the products retailers sell.  They want healthy products that not only taste good but ones they can trust.

Until recently, healthy products were overlooked as a sustainable strategy to grow sales and center store.  Selection for healthy products was poor and they lacked flavor and variety. In some cases, it seemed as though the packaging was more palatable than the product inside.  That is not the case today.  Better-for-you products taste great, some even taste better than mainstream products.

The committed natural consumer is responsible for sustainable growth across every category. They are unique from the average consumer, something that most retailers and brands overlook.  They’re responsible for driving all the better-for-you trends. In their absence, most every mainstream category is either flat or declining.  The foundation for any effective retail strategy must be focused on meeting the needs of the committed natural shopper.  Don't encourage them to shop your competition by minimizing their importance to your survival.

Mainstream brands are working on cleaning up their ingredient labels, reducing artificial ingredients, and providing healthier more nutritious products. The brands driving these trends are the smaller natural organic brands. They already have clean labels with easy to understand ingredients that can be trusted.

Retailers need to leverage the strengths of natural organic brands to drive sales in center store.  Center store needs to be a key part of every retailer and brands overall strategy.

5 Ways To Build Center Store Sales

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