10 effective promotions of a grocery store

Grocery stores have become an indispensable part of our everyday life. However, the current situation in the world makes it more and more difficult to run this business. Due to a rapid increase in prices in recent months, consumers are more likely to look at their purchases, which of course translates into smaller speed. In addition, stores begin to compete even more - which in consequence also reflects on the margin, and ultimately at the financial condition of the entire store. The low price, unfortunately, does not solve problems and you have to take into account the fact that today's customer has become more fussy and cautious when it comes to choosing a place of shopping. Therefore, it becomes a problem how to attract new and current customers to your store.

For over 10 years we have been cooperating with over 550-out stores all over Europe and we see that there are shops that, contrary to all turmoil and very strong competition, are doing well in this situation and are successively developing, although they do not have the lowest prices. What distinguishes these stores? They are distinguished above all by a well -chosen marketing strategy.

In this article, I would like to show you the 10 most effective, in my opinion and experience, a strategy for the promotion of a grocery store, thanks to which you can also increase your revenues and attract new customers to the store. These ideas can be used in any store, regardless of whether it is part of a large commercial chain or a smaller housing store.

How to start

At the beginning, before you start implementing individual promotion strategies for your business, it is important that you define your goals:

• What is the current turnover in your store, number of customers, medium shopping basket
• What increase do you expect - i.e. how do you define success
• What are your goals - revenues, the number of transactions, traffic in the store, brand awareness

Collecting these basic elements into one whole will allow you to track the results and assess what works and what is not.

Let's move to discussing the strategies.

Strategy No. 1 - Social media range

There is no doubt that your customers spend time on the internet. The question is, are you also there? If so, what message do you send them? Are you boring and monotonous? Online, but uninvolved? Check how well -known brands make a sensation on social media. They are fun, engaging and, above all, their content is current and regular.

Social media is currently the cheapest and most profitable way to show your business. Use them to show something more than just a price product. Show what is happening in your store - events, tastings, lotteries, special offers and even distinguished staff - so that customers feel part of the community of your store.

A very good option to show all this are several minutes of video movies. Don't worry if the movie doesn't look very professional. Today people are looking for authenticity.

Strategy No. 2 - Be Regional

Plastic drinks for drinks in Europe are already banned. More and more markets with health food appear in cities and smaller towns. The pursuit of a sustainable and living -friendly living reaches an increasing number of households. As a store, you can also join this movement by offering products from fruit and vegetables, to eggs, meat, sausages, cheese from smaller, regional companies. Mark these products in the store and use social media to pay attention to them. You can also describe the history of each manufacturer in an interesting way.

Strategy No. 3 - Multiple purchase bags

According to current trends - offering reusable bags is basically a must. More and more consumers are abandoning plastic bags in favor of ecological other options. An interesting cut of such a bag with a well -exposed store logo is also a great form of advertising. Keep in mind first of all that the more bags are used, the less you spend on the purchase of plastic bags.

Keep the bags at the ticket office, where customers can easily see and buy them. You can also consider an additional bonus or discount for people who use them.

Strategy No. 4 - offer tastings

Tastings are a great idea to attract customers to the store. Of course, I do not mean an ordinary table at which the yawning employee serves slices of sausage between SMSs. Make such actions look more like an event. Create an attractive theme. Also make sure your employee is friendly, involved and tidy dressed.

Try to make such events take place periodically. I know shops that offer tastings every week at the same time. This gives customers the opportunity to plan their purchases in advance, which is a very big plus.

Create an attractive slogan for this event and display the promoted products well.

Add a post in social media that will promote this tasting. People love free things, even if these are just a few bite of food.

Strategy No. 5 - Events in the store

Tastings are a great way to present new products to customers, but how about organizing another type of event in the store? Maybe a demonstration of cooking, "kitchen for children", workshops from interesting displaying sausages on a plate or tasting of products that will perfectly harmonize with the upcoming holiday or cultural event. Attracting people to your store not only increases traffic, but also increases trading through additional sales.

If you don't have much space in the store, try to put yourself at local events! You will gain access to new customers.

Strategy No. 6 - Promote fruit and drinks

Let's face the truth, grocery shopping by nature has become a bit burdensome. It is not the fault of the shops, but that today we are all more busy, which is why we have much less time. However, you can find a way to counteract it - creating an atmosphere in which customers visiting our store will feel good and will want to stay in it. In addition, obviously, i.e. friendly and helpful staff, delight your clients with a small treat. They can be chopped fruits that have recently arrived with delivery, or a small cup of coffee or tea. A small, free snack or drink will slow down customers, giving them more time to browse the alleys - which will translate directly into buying more goods.

Strategy No. 7 - Delivery offer

As I mentioned earlier, each of us is very busy today, which means that shopping goes down to a little background or we are looking for other alternative to solve. Modern technology means that we can order virtually everything today online. So why not be tempted to give your clients such an option?

What will encourage you to visit your store if you can order the same products on Allegro, Amazon or other website? Home deliveries are a great convenience, for which customers will be happy to pay. You can make such deliveries alone or with the help of companies that specialize in the supply of small purchases.

Strategy No. 8 - Create a loyalty program

The loyalty program is a fantastic way to acquire loyalty. Thanks to properly selected tools, you can build real relationships with your clients. Tools that you can use:

• Exclusive coupons
• Small prizes (for example, a shopping bag mentioned earlier)
• Discounts for further purchases
• Bonuses for the recommendation
• Receipt lotteries

The truth is that everyone must buy food products. Adding small bonuses to those customers who make them regularly in your store - it's a great way to thank them for that.

Strategy No. 9 - Build your own mailing list

Regularly sent email is one of the best ways to build valuable relationships with your clients.

Thanks to modern technology, which allows you to automatically send personalized content to many customers at once, you can present new products that have appeared in your offer. You can also show employees from your team, send current promotions, plans for upcoming events, interesting recipes and, importantly, discount coupons for shopping.

Strategy No. 10 - digitize coupons

The fact that people no longer look for discount coupons to cut out in newspapers and promotional newspapers does not mean that they do not love this type of offers. You can use it.

Using modern solutions, you can easily share such coupons in digital form. This process can be set so that the customer can find a coupon (for example in an e-mail) and download it with one finger movement to his smartphone and then, during subsequent purchases, show it at the checkout. Caring for this

The way about their clients strongly increases the chance that they will do further shopping in your store, not on the other side of the street.

SUMMARY

As you can see, there are many ways to create an attractive atmosphere around the store and take care of your customers.

Prepare an action plan that will include the strategies given above. You don't have to introduce them all at the same time. Think about what can work best on your customers and test. It is also important that your action plan includes long -term and short -term strategies. For example, you can download customers to the store with an amazing sale of top products, but when the promotion ends or will stay?

There is a good chance that yes, if you combine such a sale, for example with a developing loyalty program.