Category advice: How to grow your sparkling soft drinks sales

betterRetailing joins category expert Jemma Healy from Lucozade Ribena Suntory to find out how small changes to your soft drinks display can grow sales

Better Retailing joins category expert Jemma Healy from Lucozade Ribena Suntory to find out how small changes to your soft drinks display can grow sales

Now is the perfect time to improve your soft drinks display to maximise summer sales. RN visited two stores with Jemma Healy from Lucozade Ribena Suntory to show them how an improved range and great displays can grow sales in a category worth £1.7bn to independent retailers. First, we join Dilmeet Singh at his store in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire.

The opportunity

50% of soft drinks are bought on impulse*

Focus on

Dilmeet Singh

Londis Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire

“We plan to fully refit our store over the next year, so getting suggestions from category experts such as Lucozade Ribena Suntory on how we should improve our soft drinks section is invaluable. I want to find out how to organise my chiller so I can maximise sales for the wide variety of customers we cater to.”

Expert advice

Jemma Healy
Commercial activation controller, Lucozade Ribena Suntory

“I like how Dilmeet caters to different shoppers. To drive impulse sales, you must ensure bestsellers are visible, so Dilmeet will see growth by optimising the main chiller at the front of his store for fast-selling lines such as Lucozade Sport and Ribena. We’ll add a few low- and no-sugar lines and double-face bestsellers to maximise impulse purchases.”

Before

*IGD Food to Go 2016

Lucozade Ribena Suntory’s tips

1. Place top-sellers at eye level so shoppers can find their favourite brands.

2. Maximise year-round sales by focusing on layout, range and stocking up.

3. Make it easy for shoppers by blocking categories and brands.

Action plan

Prioritise bestsellers: To make sure shoppers see the biggest and bestselling products easily, we gave them priority space in the chiller.

Segment the category: To help shoppers on specific missions for specific needs, we blocked products by category and then by brand to make the fixture easier to shop.

Create excitement: To drive excitement and tempt shoppers into trying something different, we made room for new products next to big sellers.

What happens next?

Over the next six weeks, Dilmeet will follow Jemma’s advice. We will track the sales data to see what changes.

To see how one retailer that participated in Category Advice with LRS last year benefitted from their visit, click here