The New Organic Produce Shopper

Visualize a professional baseball player leading off first base while the pitcher reads the signal from the catcher. The runner carefully watches every move the pitcher makes. Just as the pitch is part way in progress, the runner takes off and steals second base ahead of the throw from the catcher. He took advantage of a recognized opportunity and made it pay off successfully.

When an opportunity comes along, you have to take advantage of it in a hurry before it slips away. You often only get one chance to turn an opportunity into a favorable outcome. Instead of evading the opportunity, it may call for an instantaneous decision and action in order to get it underway. The decision should be made as rapidly as possible.

Opportunities can develop at any unexpected time. When the coronavirus emerged, it set off a huge shopping spree. During that splurge, many grocery store items became scarce. That is when the organic produce sections were hit harder than normal and drew new first time customers to it.

In order to drive organic produce sales and build the category growth, greater variety and expanded display space should be considered. After the panic stricken shopping surge, the opportunity has emerged for more organic produce demand.

Shoppers are willing to spend more on organic produce with a store if a wide range of assortment is available for them to select. If they can't find it, that could diminish their loyalty to a particular produce department and entire store. It all depends on the experience that is created for them.

Competition in the supermarket business is more merciless than ever before. Even though online grocery shopping has also increased immensely from the coronavirus event, the majority of spending is still being made in the physical store.

The coronavirus shopping craze should not be accepted as a one-time sales bounce. Now is the time to focus on building up your organic produce category. Whenever an opportunity enters the picture, there is an urgency to take advantage of it.

Those who get it right will capture market share by attracting new customers from the competition. That's why it's important to understand the sense of urgency in acting fast on an opportunity such as building up your organic produce sales.

Here are six reasons to treat an opportunity as an urgency:

1. Get in high gear — Avoid decision fatigue. The door to a favorable opportunity only stays open for a short time. Consumers want instant gratification.

2. Beat competition — Stay one step ahead of your competition. Make things happen before your competitors get there first.

3. Be the market leader — You are not alone in the marketing area. If you hesitate on an opportunity, you may miss a chance to be the leader among all others.

4. Send a message — Show your customers you care about sustainability, non-GMO, unprocessed, free-range, and all natural. You can express it in the strength of your organic produce section.

5. Meet customer needs — Consumers constantly change. Many have tried organic items and are considering a conversion . Don't disappoint them. Expand your organic section and selection to fulfill their desires.

6. Grow sales — Generating sales comes from many parts of the produce department —— potato section, apple section, pepper section, berry section and other areas. Since the organic produce category has experienced encouraging results each year, it's a great opportunity for you to build a loyalty with new customers.

Make sure you stock a wider assortment of organic produce items, especially to satisfy those new contributory shoppers. You need to establish and build up a trust with them by offering a better customer experience. Once you have a complete line of organic product, start being creative with eye-popping off-shelf displays.

Ron Pelger is the owner of RonProCon, a produce industry advisory firm. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected].