Are you a head of sales for a new food product looking to get into the convenience store market? It can be daunting to get started on increasing sales in convenience stores in the United States, especially with trends in food and drink constantly evolving. So, how do you go about finding success in the convenience store market?
In this article, we’ll provide helpful tips for food & beverage distributors on getting started on convenience store drink trends. We’ll walk you through the different areas of focus—from understanding the market through sales prospecting, to understanding customer trends to converting leads and more. But before we get into our tips, let’s first review why it is important to investigate the convenience store drink trends in the first place.
The convenience store market is a rapidly growing space, and it’s one that food & beverage distributors can’t afford to overlook. Consumers are continuing to seek convenient, on-the-go options, and these stores are providing them with the snacks and drinks they need. By analyzing current trend data, food & beverage distributors can identify the popular items and flavors that customers are looking for and respond with products that fit both consumer tastes and convenience store chains’ needs.
Analytics tools like Brizo provide advanced foodservice market intelligence, giving distributors a comprehensive view of different operators in the market, their specific menus, and technology advancements. The data can help distributors identify the profiles and preferences of customers in different convenience store chains, from broad categories like flavors, brands, and price-points to more niche items like vegan or keto-friendly items.
Now that we’ve covered why it is important for distributors to analyze convenience store drink trends, let’s delve into our tips.
Tips for Getting Started on Convenience Store Drink Trends
1. Research & Prospecting
Sales prospecting is one of the most important steps in understanding convenience store drink trends. Brizo’s data allows for highly targeted research and prospecting of the foodservice market, so you can better understand your customer’s needs and interests. The insights included in the data give a deep dive into menu data and restaurant technology coverage. With the right research and data, you can more effectively understand the different players in the market and the different flavor, brand, and price points that customers are looking for.
2. Marketing & Advertising
Once you’ve identified the trends and preferences in the convenience store market, it’s time to get the word out about your product. By understanding customer trends and preferences, you can create tailored messaging to ensure your product stands out above the competition. With the right data, you can also pinpoint specific customer segments that may be more likely to respond to your product, and use that to create more hyper-targeted messaging.
3. Finding Kitchens & Expanding Operations
The convenience store market can be highly competitive, so it’s important that you’re constantly on the lookout for new locations and opportunities to expand operations. By leveraging the data from Brizo, you can get a better understanding of the potential customer base for any given area and create a more comprehensive view of the market. This will help you streamline the production process and increase the chances that customers will see and purchase your product.
4. Data Enrichment
Finally, data enrichment is key to effectively understanding convenience store trends and creating a strategy that works. The data from Brizo can be leveraged to create more comprehensive market insights and provide you with the necessary data points to make the right decisions. The more data points you have, the better decisions you can make, ultimately providing the increase in sales you’re looking for.
Concluding remarks
Getting started on convenience store drink trends can be a daunting challenge for food & beverage distributors. By following the tips in this article, however, you can get a better handle on the market data and use that to find success in the convenience store market. Sales prospecting, understanding customer trends, expanding operations, and data enrichment are all key to creating a successful strategy in seizing the convenience store drink trend.