Photos courtesy Brian Dey
Greetings produce professionals, and welcome! If you've been in this business for any length of time, you know more consumers than ever are thinking more about health and wellness.
Thanks largely to that driver and growing interest in sustainability and the environment, organic produce sales have been increasing significantly in recent years.
As the category continues to grow, adding more organic variety to your produce department is essential to growing your sales, giving your customers what they might want, and staying current with trends.
However, unless you are a department that offers 100% organic fresh produce, you will need to review with your teams some of the best practices of merchandising conventional and organic in harmony out on the sales floor so that you cater to shoppers of both segments and keep the integrity of the organic product intact.
It all starts in the back
First let's take a look at backroom storage. Organic produce must be kept in a separate area in your cooler. If there are space constraints, it can be stored on top of conventional – but never the reverse.
This is especially important when it comes to wet veg or iced product. Any drip from conventional produce compromises that organic integrity. This practice also extends to how you pack U-frames and carts to wheel on the floor to perform your packouts.
Integration, segregation or both?
The age-old question, right? Which strategy should I use, and which would be the most convenient for my customers to shop? Well, consumer trends show that almost 70% of customers prefer to have their organic selections all in one place, while almost 30% like to have their organics offered alongside their conventional options.
There are indeed benefits to both styles of merchandising. Segregation provides a destination point for your lifestyle organic shopper who likes all of their organic produce selections in one spot and who, more often than not, buys organic produce exclusively. This approach to the category makes it easier to keep everything in one place with no worries of comingling issues between organic and conventional produce.
The integration method exposes shoppers to organic who might not be actively seeking it out. Presenting conventional and organic options side-by-side allows shoppers to easily compare quality and price and then “opt up” to organic if they choose.
If you have an integrated department, here's what you need to keep in mind.
Loose conventional product can never come in contact with loose organic product. The best way to avoid this is to merchandise organic product on the top shelves or racks with conventional placed down below. This is especially important when it comes to merchandising conventional and organic product together in wet racks. No drip or misting from conventional product can come in contact with organic.
If an item is sealed and the packaging has no holes, such as the cello carrot category, it can be placed next to conventional product, allowing touching and comingling. For instance, if you are placing organic celery and carrots by each other, a good break between the celery – for barrier and color – would be a sealed bag of organic carrots. This is a good example of clean and proper comingling.
If an organic piece of produce touches a non-organic piece, it can no longer be considered organic and cannot be sold as organic.
Some stores combine both segregation and integration, where they have an organic section but they also merchandise organic alternatives with conventional product on some displays.
Another strategy to push shoppers to try organic is to offer only the organic SKU for certain items. For example, a store might only carry an organic romaine or celery heart, taking away the conventional option. These are relatively low-risk items when it comes to transitioning the conventional shopper to organic or enticing customers to try organics.
Packaged salads and carrots are also nice tonnage categories with strong growth and sales potential and relatively stable pricing. Should you decide to test an organics-only approach to a particular item or category, target some top organic movers, but be cognizant of the market volatility of commodities you are choosing.
All of the aforementioned products are packaged and sealed and would be great to experiment with.
On the flip side, strawberries and blueberries are in the top five of items consumers like to buy organic, but they often come at a premium due to constant market changes and conditions, so this category wouldn't be a good one to go organics-only on.
You definitely still want to carry these, but not as the sole berry SKUs in your racks. This is where decisions in your SKU selection and merchandising strategy will come into play, remembering your target customers and demographics and making sure that you cater to the different groups.
My personal opinion is while the elimination method works great for some items in certain areas or stores, if you are not a store that only works with organic produce, it is definitely important to carry an option for both for your customer to choose.
Having both a segregation method and integrated method working together on certain commodities allows for merchandising in both areas. Maybe a consumer starts shopping those segregated sections more often just from being exposed to organics using the integrated method.
Telling the organic story
It's important to provide information about organic and why it matters for consumer health, soil and planet in general. The interest in organic doesn't have an age limit; every group buys a significant amount of fresh organic produce each year.
I personally have had some of the best conversations with customers in stores as they ask about these topics. Some choose to stay with conventional product as their preference, but some have gone on to buying mostly, and in some cases exclusively, organic produce.
Some have gone on to be shareholders in cooperatives here on the East Coast, promoting fresh organic produce, healthy eating and making efforts to a develop a more sustainable planet. We hear this all the time, but it is so true.
Years ago, buying organic wasn't for everyone. It was a fad, trend or status symbol. Organics now, however, is a complete lifestyle in many cases, and consumers are now more willing to invest their expendable dollars in their food.
This progression of consumer buying is why having the outline for a sound organic program at retail is so vital.
Shout it out
Highlight your organic sections with good, clear signage so your customers know what they are buying is organic. This is incredibly important and an area that can make or break your organic produce sales.
Having clearly marked labels, banners or shelf tags on your counters is imperative to showcase your organic selections.
There are many different companies that have shelf strips, markers or danglers with bright colors or cool graphics to make customers aware of what selection of organics you have. Additionally, there are various racking and equipment manufacturers that have pods, attractive fencing and signage to show this off as well.
Highlight your organic sections with large banners or even informational posters.
Promotions and merchandising
There is really no difference in how promotions work between conventional and organic; at this point, they are one and the same. The once-large price disparity has shrunk dramatically over the years, with more availability on organic crops now in play, thus making organics much more promotable and affordable to all levels of income.
Running ads or specials on organic produce, placing a large display of, for example, organic asparagus at a hot price on a sharp display in a high-traffic area, with clear organic signage, might get your customers thinking that there are organic options out there for them.
Purposeful attention to building your organic category will lead to long-term growth and success!
Brian Dey is the senior merchandiser and natural stores coordinator for Ephrata, Pa.-based wholesaler Four Seasons Produce. He's an industry veteran with a serious passion for helping produce teams to achieve great presentation and results in their departments.
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