The holiday season is well underway. This time of the year presents a great opportunity for growers and retailers to take advantage of higher consumer demand for fresh products. 

A few things to keep in mind are convenience, variety, and good value for hurried shoppers seeking the best prices.  

Brian Dey, senior merchandiser and trainer at Four Seasons Produce published an article on Produce Market Guide where he shared a few tips in order for retailers to have a successful holiday season.

Know your customer

Knowing the demographics and cultural makeup around your store location, and your frequent customers is an excellent first step in holiday planning as there are a variety of religious, ethnic, and cultural holidays and observances during December. 

While Hanukkah and Christmas are the most widely celebrated in the U.S., there are several others that are observed or celebrated, such as Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, New Year's Eve (and Llama Day!). 

Since most holiday traditions center on food, you want to have the right produce for each celebration. According to the guide, this is a good starting point to help plan out merchandising and sales strategies for the holidays.

Accurate, early planning

Know what your merchandising plan will look like, where your displays will live for the season, what promotional opportunities and ads you have planned, and, of course, what will your labor schedule look like as you get closer to the holidays. 

Referencing ad data and merchandising notes from the previous year is a great start to that process. Having a “be there before you get there” mindset is a good approach and planning strategy as well.

Create impact

Something good for fruits is that after the vegetable-heavy Thanksgiving holiday, December is geared more toward citrus, pears, pomegranates, apples, persimmons, and others which see increased movement heading.

That’s why Brian Dey’s guide recommends retailers create more shelf and floor space for these highly consumed holiday items. 

“The season lends itself to building bigger themed displays. Building big, bold displays of navels, mandarins and pears will create impact for both your customer and your sales,” he says. 

Additionally, he suggests offering holiday gift boxes for navels, mandarins, and apples. It's a convenient grab-and-go idea for healthy gift-giving. 

The season is also prime for creative merchandising. From creating a Christmas tree made of broccoli to a partridge in a pear tree, the season is full of awesome opportunities to help make that shopping trip a shopping experience. Your creative flair could make an impact, both in your sales and the image of your department and store.

Make nuts visible!

Holiday and in general winter foods include more cookies, cakes, breads, and pies, with many recipes that include nuts and dried fruit. 

This is why the guide recommends making shelled and in-shell nuts, dates, cranberries, pistachios, raisins, dried figs, and chestnuts as visible as possible. 

Also, creating baking displays in high-traffic areas of your department to make finding these items easy for customers.

Make hosting easier

Hosting dinners and parties is a huge part of the holiday so convenient packaging, with pre-cut fruits and vegetables, will be a quick pick for holiday get-togethers. 

Gift baskets and other gift options will also be a good offer to have. 

Finally, the report suggests that this time of the year could be considered a “diet period” as consumers go into the New Year hoping to eat and live healthier.

The value-added category, specially packaged salads, cut fruit, and bags of snacking vegetables, like baby carrots or celery sticks, will see more traffic in their sections. Snacking tomatoes, the citrus category, and hand fruit such as apples and pears have also historically seen increased movement as well.

“The new year also brings with it tons of opportunities with sporting events, leading up to the Super Bowl in February. Weekends in January especially are great times to have some vegetable and fruit party trays on hand as well as more display space for avocados and guacamole recipe commodities. Be sure to offer both ripe and unripe avocados for the best sales results. Make more space for nuts, especially peanuts and pistachios, too,” Dey concludes.