Driving Sales and Proving It
By Shari Steinbach, MS RDN, RDBA Contributing Editor
One of the biggest challenges for a retail dietitian is to successfully show and communicate how their role has a positive impact on business. Showing a return on investment (ROI) for your work is more important than ever and although it may be difficult, it is not impossible.
In this article, we will focus on using your skills to promote store brands as they offer the best profit margin for your retailer. An effective way to do this is by providing recipes and meal ideas that meet seasonal consumer needs. Recipes can drive sales in two key ways. First by driving incremental store brand product revenue and secondly, by increasing the total basket size as customers shop for all recipe ingredients and suggested meal accompaniments.
Let’s look at a case study where a spring brunch recipe and menu plan were promoted to meet the shopper’s need for an Easter or Mother’s Day celebration. A menu was created to drive sales across the store with focus on store brand ingredients:
- Egg Casserole (recipe)
- Mini Muffins (bakery)
- Fresh Strawberries topped with Yogurt
- Flavored Coffee
In this case study a four hour in-store demo was planned during a busy shopping timeframe and a recipe/menu card was distributed. Educational talking points included preparation techniques and the nutritional benefits of key products.
After the demo was executed the dietitian worked with the grocery and perishable team leaders to conduct a sales survey for key store brand ingredients. Sales results were compared during the featured time period to sales during a previous comparable sales period with similar price points. In this scenario, the store was able to show sales increases in both the fresh departments and incremental store brand ingredient purchases which resulted in an average 14% lift over base sales. The goal for this store was at least a 7% lift so the demo was a success!
By tracking these types of seasonal demos on an ongoing basis you will be able to show the significant impact that multiple events will have over time on sales.
