The candy and snack category represents a great opportunity for growth for our Latino supermarkets in the United States. These products satisfy impulse purchases and take us on a journey of memories and cultural traditions, becoming a staple in the shopping carts of our valued customers. With a business projection 2026 estimated at more than $45 billion, it is essential to optimize strategies of how and with which products we will fill our aisles in candies and snacks, as a category.
Assortment selection: connecting with the Hispanic palate
If we define three keys to potential sales success, they are undoubtedly:
- Cultural variety: depending on the geographical area of our store and our communities’ origin.
- Healthy snacks: including this type of product in today’s market is essential.
- Emerging brands: supporting Hispanic brands to connect with our communities.
Attractive assortment
Building an attractive but also productive assortment will be essential to understanding the preferences of our different communities, such as:
- Traditional products, including typical sweets such as marzipan, wafers, tamarind, and lollipops with traditional flavors from our countries of origin.
- Popular and commercial snacks. We are all familiar with the most commercial brands from our countries of origin, such as potato chips, spicy, salty snacks, and other salty products that have been gaining popularity among our Hispanic consumers.
Display strategies for the Confectionery and Snacks categories
Implementing display strategies that effectively capture our customers’ attention is crucial.
- With a strategic location, such as additional displays at entrances or checkouts (remember that these products are 95% impulse purchases).
- Seasonal themes: we will adapt the displays according to the season or campaign that is currently underway (Day of the Dead, Valentine’s Day, Cinco de Mayo, etc.).
- Aggressive commercial promotions: we will encourage impulse buying with promotions that create a “need” to buy in our customers. We achieve this by negotiating with our leading suppliers, ensuring everyone wins.
Related Article: Retail Academy: The Grocery Area
Signage
Another point to consider in your display strategy is signage, which should be clear, effective, and eye-catching. The different furniture and displays should be adapted to the promotion you plan to present. This point is also key in our negotiations with suppliers.
Follow these tips for a successful sales journey in the candy and snack category:
- Know your customer: conduct detailed sales analyses for the category and accompany this with extensive dialogue with your customers on the sales floor to find out what they want.
- Work on constant innovation: remember that candy and snacks are impulse products, so few customers come to our stores with products in this category on their shopping list. The assortment goes “out of style” very quickly.
- Collaboration with our main suppliers: I would like to emphasize again the importance of collaboration between suppliers and retailers to ensure the continued success of our campaigns.