If you could entice your shoppers to buy more while in your stores, would you do it? Of course, you would. There are plenty of ways to help you do just that. Using promotion signage in-store is an obvious route to take. So too is the use of multiple hotspots. Here’s another: using your cash wrap area.
What is a cash wrap area?
Also known as your Point of Purchase (POP) area, your cash wrap is primarily the place in your store at which a customer can pay for your product or service. In saying that, you could argue that it’s your Point Of Sales (POS) area. However, that’s not entirely true.
We’ve noted the fundamental differences between the two in our article, 10 Things You Need to Know About the Point of Purchase.
While both POP and POS refer to the same point - where a transaction takes place - your POP area encompasses far more than just a checkout counter or till. It also applies to the area surrounding your cash register, including any retail displays or aisles that you use. Till point stands, free-standing units, G Cut-case displays, and snake aisles are just a few examples.
As for its importance, you only need to consider what you can do with these displays. More importantly, how it can help you to increase sales.
Let us explain.
The cash wrap area is the one place that all of your customers need to pass through to exit your store. That’s regardless of whether they’re buying something or not. It’s thus the last opportunity for you to make a sale. There are plenty of examples of customers who have walked in, not found what they wanted, and begun to walk out. But, as they near the exit, their eyes are drawn to a product on display which they end up buying.
Therein lies the power.
Why is the cash wrap area overlooked and undervalued?
As much as you can use your cash wrap area to increase sales, that doesn’t mean it’s always used effectively. There is the argument that this area is often overlooked and undervalued.
There are a few reasons why.
For one, there is the belief that because of their size, these stands and displays won’t have the same impact as other retail fixtures in-store. From a particular angle, that might be true. However, it’s all about context. Before disregarding the idea of placing fixtures in your cash wrap area, you need to consider the purpose of putting products here. It’s primarily done to encourage impulse buying.
As such, any retailer who doesn’t fully understand or embrace impulse buying will lose out.
On the other hand, you might have a retail strategy that focuses on sales of larger items that you can’t display at your point of sale area. Fair enough. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t, at least, consider placing other small items near your till points. After all, this isn’t about getting the same return on investment as your highest-selling gondolas. That’s impossible.
Instead, it’s about making additional sales where you can and maximizing the selling potential of your floor space.
How do you ensure your cash wrap area is more profitable?
1. Merchandising the area appropriately
One of the first (and most simple) things you can do to make this area profitable is to look at the products that you place here.
Since this area is used to promote impulse buys, you should consider placing items that are classified as complementary to the products stocked in the rest of your stores. But they shouldn’t be expensive. Sweets and chocolates are the usual products that you’ll find in and around the checkout counter. But you can also place other non-edible items such as batteries, lighters, and even novelty products that create excitement.
That said, when merchandising this area, you should also place items that are specifically related to each other close by. For example, you could position snack treats next to a lunch bag, which is next to a stand of water bottles. When done correctly, you could increase their basket size three-fold.
Merchandising items that are on promotion is another good idea to consider. A dump bin filled with items on sale or bundled toys can lead to bigger baskets and increased sales for you.
Just a word of warning: your merchandisers should continuously check this area to ensure there is always stock. Due to the limited packing space on these fixtures, it’s common for out of stocks to happen.
2. Ensure your range is correct
While it’s vital to merchandise the products that are in your point of purchase area, it’s just as crucial, if not even more so, to choose the right items to place here. In short, you need to choose your products carefully.
It’s a simple enough exercise and involves running ranging reports on the categories in your store. If you already have displays next to your till points stocked with items, you should analyze them to see if they are worth keeping. If you don’t have displays in this area, you can look at those products that show high unit movement in-store and are small enough to display in a snake aisle or at your till point.
That said, it’s advisable not to go overboard in stocking your displays. For example, the range for a snake aisle should be compact since anything else could confuse your customers. On the other hand, too many products could lead to congestion and frustrated shoppers.
When choosing your range, you should always take the seasons and holidays into account. Let’s take the example of Hot Cross Buns to illustrate our point. While you could range it in your snake aisle throughout the year, you’d ensure you have more stock during Easter and less during the rest of the year.
If you decide to keep the same quantity throughout the year, the consequences will be two-fold. You will end up with stock that sells slowly. More importantly, you’ll lose sales since you’ll use up space that could have been given to other items that would have made you money.
3. Know the profit margins at your till ends
Understanding how much your cash wrap area makes can go a long way to persuade you to invest more time and effort in displaying products here. It’ll negate any argument against using this area.
More than that, by knowing your profit margins, you empower yourself and give your stores every chance at success.
For example, knowing how much each of your products makes will allow you to consider which lines are below the average profit margin so you can eliminate them. That means more opportunities for you to increase your sales and profit. There is also the fact that once you know how much you can make, you can profit even further by placing high-profit margin items here.
That said, knowing how much this area is making increases its overall value. That’s especially true when you find that suppliers are willing to buy the display space at a higher price than you might have anticipated. You could even start a bidding war if you have enough suppliers interested.
More importantly, you might find yourself in a situation where suppliers come to you, looking to argue why you should consider stocking their products in this area over another supplier.
4. Decide on the right mix of categories
Choosing the right mix of categories to display in this area is partly about looking at which products are making you money. It’s also about looking at who your target market is and providing them with the products they want.
Of course, you don’t have to limit your range. After all, a mixed range of categories can cater to a wider range of customers. Thus, instead of only focusing on one target market, you have the opportunity to speak to and meet the needs of many. Displaying candy and toys speaks to your parents shopping with their children. Meanwhile displaying pens and notebooks could speak to students or office employees.
That said, it’s prudent to consider your sales data first before attempting to cater to many different markets. After all, you might have your heart set on ranging pens and notebooks, but the data shows you that it’s not worth it. It could even end up costing you more.
Then there is the analysis that you need to complete.
When deciding on your mix of categories, it’s advisable to leave them on your display for a minimum of three months and then analyze its performance. Every three months you can look at the retail data and then cut and replace any poor-performing categories.
If you have many high selling categories and you’re unsure of which to place and which to leave out, why not place them all? Having a different mix of categories across different tills could entice your shoppers to buy more. That’s especially true if each till is noticeably different to the point that they draw in your customers.
