How to boost your frozen and chilled food sales

Improving your sales of frozen and chilled foods doesn’t just improve your bottom line. It can also help with your food management. Increasing the turnover of your produce reduces the chance of food waste due to slow sales.

It’s easy to keep doing what you’ve always done. But looking at your marketing and sales strategies with fresh eyes can give you valuable insight into how to improve things.

This blog explores some of the practical ways you can boost your chilled and frozen food sales, just by making a few tweaks to your commercial refrigeration and your operations.

The importance of visual marketing

People are visual consumers. The brain makes snap buying decisions based on emotional reactions. We’re far less analytical than we like to believe. So, if your cold drink refrigerator is hidden away in a dark, dingy corner of your store, with no lighting and no signage, there’s no draw for your customers. However, if your drinks fridge is visible the moment they walk in, with refreshing and health-inspiring colours, images and lighting, their brain is instantly engaged and they will be drawn to the unit.

So, where you place your chillers and freezers is crucial. It’s worth watching how customers move around your retail space, so you can ensure you locate your commercial refrigeration units in the optimum place to maximise sales.

Lighting the way to increased sales

At the end of the day, people are not going to buy something they can’t see.

Modern display refrigerators, like multidecks or upright cabinets, have excellent LED lighting designed to maximise visibility without adding excessive heat to the unit. They help you display your goods in the best way.

Most modern commercial display fridges are designed to be far more visually appealing, with a sleeker footprint. Clever engineering has reduced the frame size allowing for more merchandising space, which means greater visibility for your food and drink products. Their improved design also allows people to examine the different options before they need to open the doors on the units, which, in turn, helps to improve energy efficiency and reduce your running costs.

Good signage means good sales

Showing people what’s on offer is always important. Simple overhead signs pointing to drinks, snacks, meals or ice-creams, will help people to identify what they’re looking for. Clear and easy-to-understand signage will help to engage consumers. If you have any offers, it’s important to promote these clearly, not just at the point of sale. The easier you make the decision-making process for people, the more likely they are to buy.

Taste tests for sales conversions

Sometimes one taste is all it takes to convert people into lifelong consumers. If you’re introducing a new product or range, or feel that an existing product isn’t getting the traction you expected, then it’s worth offering some taste testers. Spend some time planning this, as offering chilled or frozen foods for taste testing relies on keeping the produce at the correct temperature, as well as making it available to customers. You may need to give one staff member the job of managing the taste test, so they can keep the samples in the correct conditions to maintain good food safety.

Supportive staff drive sales

Engaged and communicative staff will help drive sales. Even simple questions, such as ‘Have you seen that we have that in other flavours?’, can be enough to help increase sales. If you sell foods that can complement each other, such as cheese and wine oir chutney, then having a knowledgeable and engaged salesforce can help. People can be open to suggestions once they’re in buying mode, and it’s worth capitalising on their engagement. Time invested in training your staff will be more than repaid by increased sales.

Fridgesmart is here to help drive your sales forward

As we’ve seen, there are many different strategies to help increase sales of chilled and frozen goods. Investing in the best display units for your business is crucial for improving the presentation of your goods, to help maximise sales. We have an excellent range of commercial display fridges here , and commercial display freezers here which are designed to meet the needs of different businesses and budgets. For help and advice, our experienced and knowledgeable team are always on hand. Call us today on 0115 9413640.