The fundamentals of produce have always mattered: quality product, reliable supply, the right assortment and strong execution at retail. Those fundamentals haven’t changed. But nearly everything surrounding them has.
Today’s consumer has more choices about where, when and how to shop than ever before. Conventional grocery is competing with mass, club, discount, specialty and e-commerce. Consumers are making more frequent trips with smaller baskets, spreading their spending across multiple retailers and paying closer attention to value. At the same time, retailers are navigating inflation, margin pressure, labor challenges, shrink and heightened food safety concerns.
For produce suppliers, this changing environment requires a broader definition of growth. Getting a product onto the shelf is still essential, but increasingly, it is only the beginning.
The opportunity ahead lies at the intersection of category strategy and marketing: understanding what is happening at retail, why consumer behavior is changing and how suppliers can work with retailers to turn those insights into demand.
The Retail Environment Has Changed
Faced with these pressures, retailers understandably become more focused on controlling shrink and expenses. But there is a risk in allowing short-term pressures to pull attention away from the fundamentals that drive produce sales: quality, assortment, availability and consumer engagement.
Inflation across the store is forcing households to prioritize spending. Shoppers are making smaller trips to manage their budgets and reduce waste at home, while spreading those trips across more retailers in search of the best overall value.
That creates a very different competitive environment. An out-of-stock isn’t simply a missed sale anymore. When shoppers are already moving among multiple retailers, it can become another reason to make the next trip somewhere else.
The answer cannot simply be reducing assortment, compromising quality or pursuing temporary margin opportunities. Those decisions may provide short-term relief, but they can also weaken the consumer experience and erode trust.
Instead, retailers and suppliers should be asking a different question: How do we create profitable demand?
Data provides part of the answer. Understanding which products matter most to target shoppers, how demand responds to price changes, how products perform within the broader category and which items shoppers buy together can help retailers make smarter decisions without sacrificing the consumer experience.
Value-added produce is one example of where those opportunities can intersect. Consumers may be price-conscious, but they continue to place a premium on convenience. Ready-to-eat, ready-to-cook and other value-added offerings can provide solutions for the shopper while creating opportunities for incremental sales and stronger margins.
Ultimately, the best produce departments do more than sell fruits and vegetables. They help consumers answer everyday questions: What’s for dinner? What can I pack for lunch tomorrow? What’s an easy, healthier snack? What can I prepare quickly after work?
That shift, from selling products to solving consumer needs, is where category strategy and marketing increasingly come together.
From Product Promotion to Demand Creation
For suppliers, this changing retail environment has significant implications for how we market.
Produce marketing has historically focused on the product: what we grow, when it’s available, where it comes from and what makes it different.
Those messages still matter, but they are not enough on their own.
Consumers need a reason to choose a product that fits their lives. That means shifting the marketing question from “How do we promote this product?” to “What consumer need are we solving, and how do we create a reason to buy?”
Produce has an advantage because fresh fruits and vegetables connect with so many things consumers already care about: health and wellness, convenience, value, flavor, discovery and feeding their families. But we cannot assume shoppers will make those connections themselves.
We have to make the value visible.
That becomes more complicated because the path to purchase is no longer linear. A consumer may discover a product through social media, watch someone prepare it online, encounter an ad through a retail media network, search for it on a retailer’s website and ultimately add it to a digital basket. Another shopper may discover that same product through an in-store display, sampling event, package or promotion.
These aren’t separate marketing environments. They are different moments within the same consumer journey.
For suppliers, that means packaging, social media, retail media, influencer content, e-commerce, merchandising, PR, sampling and sales materials should work together.
Distribution creates availability. Marketing creates a reason to choose. Sustainable growth requires both.
Retailers increasingly need partners that offer more than products and promotional calendars. The strongest supplier relationships combine product, insights, innovation, marketing and execution.
From a category perspective, suppliers should be able to answer questions that go beyond their own sales. Who is buying the category? Where is growth coming from? Which products drive traffic? What is truly incremental? What products are commonly purchased together? Where are the assortment gaps? Where might the retailer be losing shoppers?
Marketing should then take those insights one step further. Who are we trying to reach? What matters to that consumer? What problem are we solving? What message will resonate? Where can we reach them? And how can digital, social, packaging and in-store activation work together to influence purchase?
That requires breaking down some of the traditional walls between sales, category management and marketing.
A social campaign shouldn’t be evaluated solely on impressions and engagement. A retail promotion shouldn’t be judged only by units sold during a particular week. And a new product shouldn’t be considered successful simply because it gained distribution.
The larger questions are more valuable: Did we attract new households? Create another usage occasion? Generate incremental purchases? Build a larger basket? Strengthen the shopper’s relationship with the category?
That’s when marketing moves beyond a collection of tactics and becomes a growth strategy.
Making Every Touchpoint Work Harder
Consistency remains one of the strongest ways retailers can stand out. Reliable availability, superior quality and knowledgeable service create trust. But delivering that experience has become more difficult as retailers face gaps in staff experience and product knowledge.
That matters in a category where seasonality, varieties, ripeness, preparation and usage can significantly influence the consumer experience.
Investing in education can help close that gap. Associates who understand the products they sell can engage shoppers more confidently. Sampling and event selling can encourage discovery. Inspirational merchandising can turn a transactional purchase into an experience.
And that education now needs to extend beyond the traditional produce department.
As pickup and delivery grow, fulfillment associates increasingly become part of the produce experience. Consumers may be hesitant to allow someone else to select their fresh fruits and vegetables. Collaboration and training between produce and fulfillment teams can help ensure shoppers receive the same quality experience regardless of how they buy.
From a marketing standpoint, this means every other touchpoint has to work harder, too.
Packaging needs to communicate clearly. E-commerce pages need strong imagery and useful information. Social content should demonstrate preparation and usage, not simply show attractive product photography. Displays should inspire. Sampling should educate. Digital campaigns should connect products with relevant occasions and consumer needs.
The question shouldn’t simply be, “Did our campaign perform well?” It should be, “Did our collective effort move consumers closer to purchase?”
For suppliers, that also means aligning marketing more closely with the retailer’s objectives. The strongest programs won’t simply create awareness for a brand or commodity. They’ll help retailers reach more households, encourage an extra trip, grow the basket, introduce a new usage occasion or strengthen loyalty to the category.
The Opportunity Ahead
The forces reshaping produce aren’t going away.
Consumers are likely to remain value-conscious while continuing to prioritize convenience. Health and wellness will remain an important driver, including evolving eating behaviors that emphasize nutrient-dense foods and portion-conscious eating. Food safety and transparency will continue to influence trust. Labor challenges will accelerate automation from farm to shelf. And data and analytics will become increasingly important competitive differentiators.
For suppliers, the challenge is not simply keeping pace with each individual trend. It is building an organization capable of connecting them.
We should be asking ourselves: Do we understand the retailer’s shopper as well as we understand our product? Are we bringing insights or simply bringing items? Can we demonstrate how our products grow the category, not just our own sales? Are we helping consumers understand why, when and how to use our products? Are our retail, digital, packaging and marketing strategies connected?
And perhaps most importantly: Are we creating demand, or simply hoping distribution creates it?
The next era of produce growth will not be won by category strategy or marketing alone. It will be won where the two intersect.
Our industry has better data and more ways to reach consumers and understand what motivates them than ever before. Companies that use those insights to guide category strategy and engage shoppers will be best positioned to create sustainable growth.
Because in an increasingly fragmented marketplace, getting the product onto the shelf is only the beginning.
The real opportunity is giving the shopper a reason to put it in the basket.
- Andrew Kerr is the vice president of category & growth and Naba Bakar is the vice president of marketing at GoldenSun Insights, a strategy consulting firm in the produce industry.