According to Nathan Arnold, director of marketing at Englefield Oil Company, which operates Duchess convenience stores in Ohio, “The belief over the years has been ‘If you put [a product] out, it will sell.’ There is still that mentality, but we want to make sure we are doing it in a thoughtful, curated way. We aren’t necessarily reducing, we’re just displaying products in a different way that looks more organized.”

If your store has too much merchandise, “It becomes wallpaper to the customer,” said Joe VonderHaar, CEO and founding partner of iSEE Store Innovations, which creates and manufactures display fixtures for convenience retail. “And if you do something that interrupts their trip while they’re picking up their go-to products, it can create friction.”

With limited store footprints, ever-changing product popularity, a consistent stream of new-to-market items and category inventory to manage, employing the right merchandising techniques that strike the balance of engaging customers without overwhelming them can ultimately help build baskets.

“Retailers are looking at merchandising techniques and considering how they can reset displays faster, adapt to seasonal trends and find the right fixtures that allow them to have an optimized amount of product facings so that employees don’t have to stock as often,” said Matt Epps, chief sales officer at Wanzl North America, which produces retail fixtures.

Sleek, Streamlined and Space-Saving

Duchess focuses on what it calls a “clean store policy.”

“That means we try not to place displays on our floor because there’s only so much that a consumer can look at when they enter,” Arnold said. “We’ve created little destinations by using some smaller, four-sided gondolas as well as different kinds of laydown platforms where we can merchandise products. It gives the store a cleaner aesthetic and also reduces the consumer being overwhelmed by walking in.”

SKU rationalization, said Epps, is an effective way to make sure retailers aren’t “cramming everything in,” and are keeping open space, cleanliness and a sleek store top of mind. “Instead of having three facings of the same product, they’ve only got one and are making sure it’s updated properly,” he said.

VonderHaar’s advice for keeping the consumer from being overwhelmed? Let the product be the star. “The best merchandising [in terms of fixtures and displays] is never actually seen by the customer, because they see the product. Think about what is between your customer and your product, and there should only be positive interruptions to their trip,” he said. The easiest way for retailers to create positive interruptions is through cross merchandising that co-locates complimentary products to help consumers easily build their basket.

“Convenience store trips are high speed and high frequency,” said VonderHaar. “It’s very hard to motivate a customer to walk to another section of the store for the second half of their two-for-one deal or meal bundle—it’s an extra step for them. But presenting everything to them together makes it easier for them, and the easier you make it, the faster you will build sales.”

While maintaining a clutter-free store is a top consideration for effective merchandising, retailers still need to maximize space and available product within the limited footprint they have.

End caps, undercounter shelving and power panel display fixtures can help retailers capture underused space within their square footage.

The catch-22 in convenience retailing is that you can’t sell what isn’t on your shelves, but adding more shelf space (either up or out) can create an unpleasant experience and cause fewer sales. That’s why suppliers within the space are continuously innovating to find new ways to get more out of every inch allotted to merchandising.

Craig Weiskerger, director of sales and marketing at Trion Industries, a fixture manufacturer for retail stores, said that one of Trion’s products for peg candy and salty snacks can provide 15% to 35% space gain depending on the product. “You’re gaining SKUs in the same footprint and are able to sell more in the same space. Depending on the product, it can be up to an entire row,” said Weiskerger. “That obviously translates to immediate sales. We’ve seen retailers add more product facings, double up on high sellers, or sometimes it provides them the opportunity to add new products or product combinations.”

Fixtures that are flexible also allow retailers to accommodate a wider variety of products and turn over inventory without having to replace fixtures.

“We’ve seen a lot of packaging sizes shrink over the last two years, especially in the grab-and-go beverage category. A lot of retailers have glides provided by manufacturers or brands, but those are made for a specific product,” said Rich Wildrick, director of engineering at Trion. “If the width of the product changes or gets smaller, retailers are going to have dead space in their coolers.” Trion said its Zip Track Merchandising System is adjustable for 12 different bottle or can widths, “so anything from a real small Red Bull to a bigger 28 oz Gatorade bottle, for example, can fit within that. It’s just a matter of them adjusting it as they change their planograms or SKUs,” Wildrick added.

Elsewhere in the store, the checkout area provides a captive audience. “We are seeing an increase in queuing system review. We have a product that is modular and optimizes the amount of impulse rack space at the register area. It allows retailers to put a lot of product in a very nice footprint as customers queue up to the register area. We are seeing retailers put a lot of focus on that part of the store,” said Epps.

Duchess always keeps space dedicated to new items, line extensions from brands and seasonal items. “But over the past couple of years, the number of those have decreased, understandably [due to inflation and supply chain issues],” said Arnold. “We have had to pivot a bit. We’ve created planograms that kind of shift throughout the year and identified items to put in those spaces where we can still give the customer something to purchase in the absence of a seasonal display or LTO.”

Behind the Backbar

At Duchess, “Tobacco is a topic of conversation every day,” said Arnold. The backbar is constantly evolving, as are regulations, so using the space to effectively merchandise new products and an ever-changing assortment is a continual puzzle for retailers to solve.

One of the challenges Harbor, which specializes in fixtures for tobacco, sees retailers run into is inflexibility in backbar fixtures, which doesn’t accommodate for the frequent need to reset tobacco products. “Some of these older legacy systems work off of two-, three- or four-foot shelves. You can’t accommodate the planograms that [the manufacturers] are now creating,” said Andy Cremer, senior vice president of sales and creative services at Harbor. He said Harbor’s Infinity Fixtures uses one-foot columns. “You can create any length of fixture you want in one-foot increments, and we also have half-inch spacing on the shelves. It gives retailers ultimate flexibility in terms of planograms. Going forward, the amount of resets and new product introductions are going to continue shifting towards more modern oral nicotine products, so having flexibility in your system is really key.”

To capitalize on the backbar space, Duchess has also “introduced some new accessory products, from different lighters to papers, that are being displayed there,” said Arnold.

And even for the non-tobacco customer, the backbar is still a merchandising opportunity for retailers. “That is a captive space for a consumer. While they’re checking out, their eyesight is directly toward the backbar. Whether they are a tobacco consumer or not, they’re going to look back there,” said Arnold. He noted the company is exploring ways to use new technology and digital screens to display messages or marketing at the backbar.

Communicating With Customers

If you want to reach today’s consumers, go digital. “It’s how shoppers want to be communicated with now,” said Cremer. “There is a huge push towards digital products—retail media networks, connected mobile app experiences, digital headers or store screens and digital menu boards—but overall there is a huge opportunity for retailers to create more digital communication.”

Arnold said Duchess has screens throughout all of its stores and is using them for retail media networks and to highlight its own in-store promotions. “But we want to make sure that it doesn’t become white noise to the customer or make people overstimulated. So where they’re located is important.”

Putting digital offers, coupons and loyalty sign-ups at the “point of decision,” or with the product, allows customers to engage with digital features or offers with less friction. “QR codes are wallpaper to many younger customers,” VonderHaar said. “So you need to make it easy for someone and not make them fill something out or click around too much, or it’s not going to happen.” iSEE recently launched iSEE Tap, which allows customer to tap their phone and bring up offers or loyalty sign-ups. It can be used on surfaces like cooler doors, countertops and shelves, and VonderHaar said he has seen many retailers use it at the pump to encourage customers to join loyalty programs or drive trips inside the store.

Customers are also responsive to narratives that help build connection with a brand or a product. Wanzl’s Epps has seen retailers—especially smaller and independent store operators—focus on sourcing local items, whether it be produce, baked goods or other products.

Duchess has expanded its inventory of private-label items and locally made or sourced products. “We’ve seen a big increase in demand for those,” said Arnold. “We are working with Ohio-based manufacturers to create our own private-label items that we sell, and consumers really resonate with that. They understand that by purchasing that item, they’re not only supporting us as a local business in the state, but also other industries in Ohio.”

Duchess has also cultivated its customer innovation program over the past several years, through which it promotes items that benefit charitable organizations. Duchess works primarily with Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Ohio and The James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State University. “We’re promoting items that give a portion of the proceeds to those charities. We’re also looking at developing some new and unique items that would be sold directly for those charities,” Arnold said. “Customers feel good about giving back to organizations that are in our backyard, helping people and also getting an item they actually want.”

Mull Over These Merchandising Tips

When evaluating your merchandising strategy or potential products to implement, here are a few other ideas to keep in mind.

Food for thought: Epps said Wanzl has seen a move towards convenience store foodservice staples such as pizza or hot dogs being presented hot-and-ready for customers to grab themselves. “There’s been a desire to find fixtures that allow for bulk storage, where the customer can lift the lid, grab their piece out in some wax paper and go. From the customer perspective, this signals to them that the food is fresh or was just cooked,” said Epps.

Staying shoppable without shrink: Loss prevention and shrink reduction are top of mind for many retailers, who are navigating how to keep stores shoppable while also keeping products safeguarded from theft. “We are seeing a desire for locking cabinets that are low impact but aid in loss prevention,” said Epps. “Everybody wants to lock stuff down, but we know that when you lock something down, you impact sales. So how can we limit that impact?” He said the company has seen success in Europe with its SecureFlex customer-interactive locking cabinets, which customers can unlock themselves through an app without the assistance of an employee.

Trion produces peg hooks with locks or anti-sweep designs, which Weiskerger said keeps product presented nicely but mitigates theft. “We developed hooks where you can only take off one piece at a time, as well as ones with a lock where you can lock 100% of your product or any percentage of it to keep the product shoppable without needing a store associate to come over and unlock it every time.”

A one (and only) stop shop: Arnold said Duchess has “always taken pride in trying to be first to market with new brands.” It was one of the first brands in Ohio to market Bang Energy drinks several years ago, which Arnold said helped the business learn how to attract new customers or ones that traditionally haven’t shopped at convenience stores. “If we can be first to market with a variety of brands, then we can create a new customer base for us. We’ve really had some great success from that.”

Innovation station: VonderHaar noted that many retailers have an “innovation door” for coolers to merchandise new or emerging beverage products. “This trains customers to know to browse that area if they want to try something new.”