Anyone who follows Nishi Patel on his social channels will know the Dartford retailer is an expert in spotting trends that could work across his Londis stores.
As another summer draws to a close, Convenience Store spoke to Nishi to see what was a hit over the school holidays - and what might prove successful this autumn.
Nishi said: “Obviously we had freeze-dried candies and Squishies in stores over the summer - they went pretty nuts. We did 500 units in two weeks or something crazy, maybe even 10 days. That was helped by the summer school holidays of course.”
He admitted the soft, collectable pocket money fidget toys were something he wasn’t sure would translate well to his shelves at first: “We tried it, but we weren’t sure it was going to work out.
”It’s slowed down a bit now, going into the new school term, but there were some crazy ones like McDonald’s fries and KFC lines which did well.”
Retailer grapevine
Nishi said he finds out about these potentially viral lines from a network of suppliers and other retailers: “We hear about these things from some good suppliers we’re in contact with. Once you dip your toes in, you create a demand and a market for it.
“We’ve got such a good network between retailers that we share a lot with.”
“We’ve got such a good network between retailers that we share a lot with. They’re national, local - everywhere really. We speak to stores in Scotland, Dorset, Cornwall, Wales. There’s North London retailers we talk to, and some in the Midlands and Yorkshire.
“We’re in several groups and on panels within the business like Coca-Cola, Nestlé and others. Then we also have our own little split off groups, retailer groups where we share new things and tip each other off…”
Social media
Another big part of any new range’s success comes down to online promotion, Nishi said: “You make a bit of a buzz online on social media, then you add and add. We went from one or two shelves to a whole bay of Squishies at the peak.
“I’ve got a social media team that does all the posting for me, but once a week I get up early, come into a shop, do a load of videos and then pump it out to them and it gets released across the various platforms.”
In-store location
In terms of where to merchandise these ‘buzzy’ newer lines in store, Nishi said good visibility is key: “The front bay is the best place, anywhere near the counter. If someone sees it, they’ll tell their friends. It’s the first focal point when you walk into the shop. More than likely these sorts of things go in the front bay.”
Next up
In terms of which hot products are coming next to Nishi’s stores, he said the focus will be shifting to soft drinks from the US: “We’ve obviously got a bit of seasonal stuff coming - all the Halloween lines, but we’ll tend to do a lot of new drinks too, so we’ve got a lot of the new Monster lines from America.”
“With the US drinks, you can sell them with a bit more of a premium too. Soft drinks are a massive part of my business. I like to concentrate on them and have a nice little section of the American branded stuff - different Fanta flavours, Monster and stuff like that.
“We’ve got our normal fridge of everyday drinks and then we’ve got the specialised drinks in the corner.”
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