Increase juice sales with innovation

 



As a Canadian consumer, there’s a strong chance there’s a bottle of juice in your household right now. When you think about how it got there, a convenience store isn’t likely the first place to come to mind, but is there any reason it shouldn’t?

Across all channels in Canada, juice (including 100% juice and juice drinks) is the number two category in beverages, after milk and ahead of soft drinks, at just over 20% of beverage sales. In the convenience channel, juice represents 8% of cold beverage sales, and with recent trends toward health and wellness, is positioned to grow in this channel.

Get innovative with juice

One of the limiting factors to juice sales in c-stores is simply that customers don’t seem to associate these stores with the juice category. The lack of space in beverage coolers, with so many brands and soft drink flavours, along with the rise of energy drinks, means your shoppers aren’t seeing a lot of juice SKUs and are choosing to make these purchases elsewhere as a result.

The best way to impact juice sales is through innovation, so you need to find space for new juice SKUs in your store. The first step is to reduce the duplication of products wherever possible. For example, you don’t need several kinds of orange or apple juice, so go with one brand; eliminating those other SKUs will make room for exciting new products that tie in with the latest trends, like new peach mango and cherry grape 100% juices from OASIS.

Keep it simple

Properly placed display materials are another asset for creating excitement around the latest the juice category has to offer; don’t forget to use signage inside and outside your doors so customers know what juice products can be found in your coolers. Chilled displays are best for showcasing the latest juice SKUs, and simple promotions will help customers quickly engage with this category at your site.

Locally-driven promotions help foster community bonds and give customers a perception of higher odds of winning, so take advantage of simple promotional concepts, like drawing tickets for local activities to increase engagement.

The bottom line is, your customers are buying juice, and are positioned to buy more juice SKUs from your c-store. Use displays, innovation, and bundling promotions to let them know you’re big into the juice category in a quick and convenient way.

Quick tips:

1. Follow the trends. Health and wellness is big in beverage, so look for SKUs with health benefits, like alternative sweeteners or added vitamins.

2. Make room for new additions. Innovation is big in beverage, so give your new juice SKUs prime real estate in your cooler and place chilled displays in high-traffic locations.

3. Bundle up. Easy-to-understand promotions like 2-for or bundling options with other categories give your customers an exciting way to buy juice SKUs, and fast.

4. Go outside. Place juice display materials inside and outside your store to turn your site into a beverage destination.

 

Insights provided by Luc Prévost, vice president of marketing, A. Lassonde Inc.

Source: Nielsen MarketTrack, Latest 52 weeks, period ending June 30, 2013.