How to Bring New Life to the Center Store

Although the summer holidays don't drive the same kind of traffic as the fourth-quarter holidays, there is a lot for food retailers to be happy about this year.

Summer is here, and the economy seems to be growing at a steady pace, if not exactly a brisk one. Shoppers are loosening their purse strings slightly and are open to more impulse buying than they have been in a few years. Seasonal tastes are changing, with outdoor grilling taking over for meals prepared on a stove or in a microwave.

There are challenges, of course. The past couple of decades have seen a significant decrease in center store activity for most stores. There are a number of reasons for this, including a greater interest from shoppers in fresh foods versus canned and package products, lessability for stores to differentiate the center store (Del Monte canned green beans are the same everywhere) and even partly from the willingness of many stores to lease out the shelf space to the highest bidder for advertising.

Drive Interest
So, with the summer season upon us and shoppers preparing to descend, what are some things a store can do to drive greater interest in the center store? Below are some ideas - none of them revolutionary - but rather forgotten or ignored tactics that can drive sales and improve shopper satisfaction, all by driving shoppers off the perimeter.

1. Customer service - This is an obvious but too-often overlooked area. Customer service doesn't mean having your employees grunt out some forced hello and a gritted-teeth smile to shoppers. It really means having people available on the sales floor who are both eager and able to help shoppers find that odd product. Better yet, they should also know something about the products being sold.
2. Cross-merchandising - This is another idea that has been around for ages but has never really been used effectively over the long term. In this context, cross-merchandising isn't just putting the sliced American cheese and buns near the ground beef. It's using meal ideas to direct shoppers through the store, with some incentive, such as $5 off a meal solution that includes these items. This is a great time of year for cross-promotional ideas to drive shoppers from the meat case or produce section into the center for things like pickles, condiments and soft drinks.
3. Get relevant - The typical supermarket carries more than 40,000 SKUs but the typical home has only 500. How many of those center-store SKUs are actually carrying their share of sales, and how many are there for the wrong reasons? Every unnecessary SKU is taking up space that could be used by something that actually sells or attracts high-value shoppers. But be careful not to cut too deeply, or eliminate a slow-moving SKU that brings in a valuable shopper. Use loyalty data if available before going down this path, and be willing to put things back if needed.
4. Eliminate out-of-stocks - This remains one of the dirty secrets of retail, and is most prevalent in the center store. A recent study found that shopper trip satisfaction was influenced most by the out-of-stocks experienced on that trip. That same study found that 50 percent of shoppers experiencing an out-of-stock will go elsewhere to find the product rather than substitute another one. Finally, while overall out-of-stock rates have been at approximately 8 percent for many years as a total of all SKUs, shoppers' impression of the percentage of out-of-stocks is closer to 25 percent. Nothing will contribute to happier shoppers than fixing this problem now.
5. Use the store as a communications medium - That doesn't mean to slap more paid ads on the floor and checkstand belts. People enter a store as shoppers with a goal in mind, and anything the retailer can do to help them accomplish their goal will be recognized and rewarded by repeat visits. Use the shelf edge in the center to direct, entice and influence shoppers throughout the trip. More than anything, shoppers want information about the products they buy and ideas to answer that age-old question, "What's for dinner?"

Focused Commitment
None of these ideas is ground-breaking, but efforts to instill them tend to be short-lived and quickly forgotten. Driving people into the center store isn't rocket science, but it does take a focused commitment to make the center store a worthwhile part of the shopping trip and to keep the pressure on.

Jeff Weidauer is vice president of marketing at Vestcom, the leading provider of customized shelf-edge communication for the retail industry, driving sales and reducing costs for the nation's top retailers and their suppliers. Mr. Weidauer can be reached at jweidauer@vestcom.com or 501.663.0100.

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