Product Placement is Important for C-Store Sales

In retail, product placement is a crucial element for selling merchandise.  “Location, location, location” is as true on a micro-level as it was for selecting the location of your store in the beginning.  Those managers who have been in the retail business for years may have experienced receiving regularly updated marketing planograms to direct the layout and product placement within their stores.  Other business owners without a corporate marketing team rely on their own judgment to determine how to stock their shelves.  This article explores some of the concepts that make an effective planogram for your convenience store.

Product placement requires good knowledge of visual merchandising and consumerism.  Essentially, knowing how consumers think when they enter your front doors will help you make good decisions about the store’s layout and product placement to optimize sales.

One of the biggest priorities of any c-store planogram is convenience itself.  Shoppers are in your store to make their purchases quickly and easily.  Regardless of your planogram, some of the foundational requirements for any well-performing c-store include:

• Ensuring products are easily accessible and aisles are wide enough to walk through the store quickly.
• Providing clear signage, so shoppers know where products are located.
• Keeping the store well lit inside and out makes it easier to see products.
• Organizing shelves and keeping them neat and orderly, so customers see the options and find what they need quickly.
• Making it easy to get to the check-out area and providing technology to make paying for purchases simple.

Next, create a map of your store and determine where products will be placed based on tips like these:

1. End caps.  End caps get more attention from shoppers as they walk through the store.  These locations are ideal for introducing your shoppers to new products.  Resist the temptation to put your best sellers on end-caps because they will sell just as well in other less prominent locations anyway.
2. Mid-aisle eye-level shelves.  In retail, there’s a saying that “eye level is buy level.”  This is one of the highest-selling locations in a store.  As you work with vendors, you may be able to negotiate special pricing to allow them to place their products on these shelves.
3. Other shelves.  Products already high-demand will sell well no matter where you place them as long as they are clearly visible.  You can use higher or lower shelves for these products, but it’s a good idea to ensure they have multiple facings.  The number of facings has a positive correlation with the number of sales.
4. Closer to the entrance.  Promotional items tend to move well when placed near the door.  Shoppers will see them and make a quick decision to buy them before loading up their arms or basket with the products they came in to purchase.
5. The back of the store.  Go to almost any grocery store, and you’ll find the milk section on the back wall furthest from the entrance.  Necessity goods like milk, eggs, and bread will draw people through your store, exposing them to all your marketing displays and aisles of products along the way.  In your c-store, this may also include popular drinks such as energy drinks and beer.

Design, implement, test, and re-design.

Unfortunately, there is no single solution that works for every store.  Your customer demographics and regional preferences will have unique impacts on each store you own.  After designing and implementing a planogram, it’s important to monitor its effectiveness and determine what changes or “tweaks” to make in order to get the results you desire.

Achieving your c-store sales goals is as easy as partnering with GP Energy.

Finding the perfect product mix to meet your demographic’s needs is challenging.  By partnering with GP Energy, we can help your business unlock its potential with new opportunities and achieve unimaginable success.  Our experienced team can assess your business and the markets each location resides in and recommend programs that will add more profits to the bottom line.  Contact us today, and let’s get started.