Here Comes The Sun!

Speciality Bites with

Paul Hargreaves

Chief executive of Cotswold Fayre

• Becoming a B Corp
• Top trend predictions for Christmas 2021
• Self-sacrifice: The importance of building a leadership legacy centred on others
• Undercover Boss
• Can/should bosses really be close friends with their staff?

Apart from the Christmas season, the summer represents the best opportunity to increase sales for the independent food retailer

People are generally out and about more in the sunshine, there are tourists in the UK, and the good weather gives more opportunity for customers to make “special purchases” for parties, picnics, barbeques and other outdoor events. So, what can we do to maximise customer spend during the fine weather? And as I write it is 18 degrees outside in March, so we had better start quickly!

First of all, let the customer know that we know what season it is. What do I mean by this? Make sure that your front display reflects the season we are in – and changes frequently. For delicatessen this may be the window, and for a farm shop or food hall it is the first display of product that the customer sees when they come through the door. Or if there is room, it may be outside the shop. Be seasonal! If it is Easter then let it say “Easter”, after Easter, let it say “picnic” or “barbeque” or “Wimbledon” etc….

Secondly and connected to the above is one of the most important lessons I have learnt travelling around the best independent retailers in the UK. Start with an offer! Generally customers entering the premises of an independent shop have a voice in their head saying, “It’s expensive here, let’s not buy much, just a few treats”. The average spend per basket for independent retailers is between £10-£15 whereas the average spend per basket in Tesco is just over £33 (Nielsen – May 2010). It may be over-optimistic to aim for £30 average or even £20, but just adding 20% or a couple of pounds to our average basket spend will make a massive difference to our profits.

One of the ways of doing this is to tell the customer that you have special offers. Let the customer see a special offer as soon as they walk through the door, and hopefully a few more around the store. Even if they don’t buy them, they will put more in their basket because the little voice in their head is quietened by their seeing promotions in the shop. The basket spend will increase! Please try it, it works! What better opportunity to try this out than the summer, with, for example, a range of drinks, barbeque meats or ice cream. And the even better news is that you don’t even need to fund it yourselves. Many suppliers and wholesalers are more than happy to fund the promotion as it has a powerful marketing function for them.

Re-merchandise and re-stock the shop for the summer. There are clearly products that sell a lot better in the summer than the winter – we should be ensuring that we increase the space these products have and decreasing the space that the more winter-orientated products have within the store. Some of these are obvious, others less so. Did you know that crisp sales are much higher in the summer, and fruit cakes much lower? If you have Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day or Easter products left, don’t be tempted to leave them out for sale beyond two weeks after Easter. It will make your displays look tired and draw attention away from your summer displays.

Cross-selling and up-selling. This is, of course, valid all year round, but there is a great opportunity to use increased sales of seasonal fruit and vegetables to sell other products alongside them.  It always amazes me how much up-sell can be achieved by this. I will use the example of asparagus. Clearly sales of hollandaise sauce will increase during the asparagus season. However, whilst most farm shops will sell maybe 4 or 5 times the normal volume, I know one farm shop that increases this to 20 or 30 times by a) having large displays next to the asparagus, b) doing an offer on the hollandaise if they buy so much asparagus and c) ensuring staff on the tills ask the customers who have asparagus and not hollandaise sauce in their baskets, whether they would like some! It’s not rocket science but does require some planning and training.

Pressure of Stock. This may be a phrase you have heard before or not, but it again relates to the psychology of the customer. If they see a large pile of product, whether that be hollandaise sauce (as above), Ginger Beer or other summer product, it says to the customer “these must sell well, they have so much of it”. This will make it more likely for the customer to put one in their basket. It also motivates the staff as they see a large pile of product – and think, “we had better push that product as we have so much!”. Again try it, it works, but suggest you don’t do it with short-dated products if you have a nervous disposition. One of the best stores doing this is Wholefoods in Kensington, which have enormous piles of sometimes fairly obscure products e.g. habas fritas.

Tourist Business. Most independent retailers will be visited by both foreign and British tourists at some point during the summer. For foreign visitors some very British food is a perfect gift for them to take home. This could be something quintessentially British such as a pudding or any food with a Union Jack flag on it – see some the products that are being merchandised for the Royal Wedding. For British tourists, who will generally spend more on food whilst they are on holiday, how about easy meal ideas to take back to their holiday let, caravan or tent?

The phrase “make hay whilst the sun shines” is an apt one for our sector. Even more important for our businesses is that the sun shines at the weekend. As a wholesaler supplying over 1,000 independent retailers, we know that following a sunny weekend, our turnover is 25% higher than a week following a rainy weekend. It makes a huge difference. I am sure people don’t eat more when the sun shines, just that they are more likely to shop in our sector and less likely to buy everything they need from the supermarkets.

There is lots more I could say, but space is running out. Have a profitable summer and don’t’ forget that the most important key to success is your staff. They are the smiling face of your business!