A plan for better biscuit sales

UK shoppers love their biscuits, but convenience stores are arguably not getting their fair share of category sales increases, so the time is right for store owners to take a fresh look at their fixtures to make sure they are taking full advantage of the key growth sectors.

Earlier this year, Mondelēz International joined forces with Convenience Store to implement new merchandising plans at a number of c-stores across the country, with the aim of both making it easier for shoppers to find products, while also inspiring them to make additional impulse purchases.

There are two key missions for biscuits in convenience – top-up (roughly 80% of sales) and on the go. The category broadly splits into three segments – sweet, healthy and savoury – with the latter two currently under-represented in convenience.

Sweet should account for about 60% of the space, and within the segment everyday biscuits are losing share to treat and special lines, as consumers trade up.

When finalising the fixture plan, it’s important to note that there are relatively new, emerging sub-segments that you must also account for – such as breakfast biscuits. Sub-categories present further opportunities for complementary sales by combining with other product offerings – for example, breakfast biscuits with coffee.

For the main fixture, the key principles are as follows:

• Healthy is the fastest growing segment, so it should be merchandised at the top of the fixture
• Shoppers use pack format and colour to help them navigate the fixture quickly
• The everyday treat/special treat sub-categories are merchandised together under the sweet category as per biscuits flow ie Oreo adjacent to Cadbury Fingers
• Merchandise the best sellers on the best-selling shelves (eye level) for ease of shop
• Fixtures up to 3m are blocked horizontally to help shoppers scan across the fixture at eye level
• Where possible, look to brand block sweet biscuits, to maximise their impact on shelf

 As customers on a to-go mission tend to be more impulsive and are often in a hurry, Mondelēz used a flexible unit that could be positioned in relevant high-traffic positions such as by the till, near the front of store, by the impulse chiller or by the coffee machine. Within the unit, a range of single-serve packs was introduced with merchandising clearly segmented by product type, eg breakfast, nut/seed bars and sweet treats.

In order to make the most of the complementary sales opportunities, in project stores with a coffee machine a coffee and Belvita offer was set up, supported by posters and a Belvita dispenser unit. Both of these can be ordered or downloaded via the website www.deliciousdisplay.co.uk.

See how these principles were implemented in-store with this short video:

The results speak for themselves: following the category guidelines in four project stores over an eight week period saw volume sales up by an average of 16% and value sales up by 10%. All stores grew sales in both ‘on the go’ and ‘top up’ mission breakfast biscuits, while Belvita volume sales grew by 63% in a fifth store when offered with a coffee at a special price.

All sales data was captured and verified by The Retail Data Partnership.

Sources: Nielsen, Indies and Symbols, 30 December 2017; TNS Magasin for CTB 2001; Project Shapes 2014 – Eye Tracking Stud