Examples of Sales-Boosting Grocery Store Endcaps

If you’re wondering how to create successful endcap displays, it can be helpful to look at some popular examples and common practices. The best endcap displays use printed images, text and bright colors to grab attention and make messaging clear within seconds. Keep reading to discover endcap best practices.

What Is the Function of an Endcap?

Endcap displays have many purposes and types, depending on your marketing and sales goals. Grocery store endcap displays are often used to generate brand awareness and promote new products, seasonal items or popular merchandise with brand appeal. Some common functions of this point-of-purchase (POP) display include:

• Enticing customers to shop the aisle: One of the most significant functions of an endcap is to entice shoppers to browse the corresponding aisle. Visual appeal is crucial for grabbing a customer’s attention and encouraging them to browse specific items and the various options you offer for a specific product. Endcaps let customers know what to expect when they start browsing, which can ease their shopping experience and guide them to your unique brand offerings. 
• Offering temporary products and displays: Your brand can cater to customer needs and buying habits with temporary endcap solutions. The flexible and customizable design of POP and endcap displays allows brands to change displays to match recent holidays or limited promotional materials in ways that aren’t possible with regular shelving solutions. 
• Selling clearance items: Endcaps offer an excellent opportunity to advertise clearance items. Many customers enjoy the sale prices of clearance items, and the convenience of being out in the open can make it easier to clear the shelves. 
• Achieving cross-merchandising: When you want to encourage customers to buy multiple items at once, endcaps are the way to go. Whether you’re aiming to sell a laptop with multiple accessories or want to advertise a complete meal solution, endcaps allow you to place all related items side by side to encourage large sales. 

Top Endcap Display Ideas to Try Out

Retail endcap displays help draw customer attention to your products, which can significantly boost sales. The following ideas can help you optimize custom displays so more shoppers engage with your products:

• Highlight your brand: Use colors, images and logos that match your brand’s personality. Endcaps offer an opportunity to showcase your diverse selection and let customers get to know your brand as a whole. Consider an example like M&M’s. Their candies are well-known for bright colors, so endcaps commonly feature rainbow designs. 
• Promote special deals: Promote special deals and sales on your endcap. Because endcaps bring more attention to products, they are useful for pointing out discounts and other promotions. Sales and discounts can encourage customers to try out products they might not normally consider, helping increase brand awareness and expand your customer base. Many companies use this type of endcap display because they can highlight bundle promotions. It allows brands to group products together in one space.
• Highlight new products: When launching new products, endcap displays can bring them to customers’ center of attention. You can optimize product arrangements to highlight the best features and use design elements to show their benefits to customers. With color and design flexibility, you can focus on increasing brand recognition and awareness for any new products you are launching to boost product and brand success.
• Pair with complementary products: Display your products with complementary items. Like with promotions, the space and flexibility of endcap displays mean you can highlight products that work well together. For example, placing coffee mugs or sweeteners next to your coffee products provides quick solutions to pain points customers may have related to your product. This strategy eliminates browsing and adds convenience to the shopping experience while boosting sales.
• Change your display to match different seasons: Use seasonal displays to cater to changing consumer needs. Many customers enjoy the unique characteristics of each season, and endcaps present an opportunity to get creative and allow you to highlight unique products that relate to the season.
• Use color to your advantage: Use bold, bright colors to make displays stand out or to impact how customers feel about your products. First impressions matter, and studies show that color contributes to 90% of the information that determines whether customers make a purchasing decision. Color even impacts health perception, so it’s worth understanding which colors can increase your chances of making a sale. 

7 Examples of Supermarket Endcap Displays

The versatility and customization of endcaps allow many brands to use them, regardless of their product types and industries. Endcap displays can meet several customer and marketing needs, allowing brands to get more creative with their placement and designs. Here are seven grocery store endcap examples that you’ll typically spot in supermarkets:

1. Batteries in Just the Right Places

Nowadays, most products need batteries, so why not remind customers to grab them? We’ve seen countless examples of vendors promoting their batteries with endcaps placed near electronic products that require them.

2. Soda to Quench the Thirst

It’s typical to see Coke on sale one week and Pepsi on sale the next. In either case, soda companies — both big brands and smaller outfits — often use endcap display stands to remind customers of their thirst, whether the soda is on sale or not. The end of a snack aisle is an ideal location. What goes better with a salty snack than a fizzy soda, after all?

3. Back-To-School Binders

One great example of seasonal product placement is the use of endcaps to display binders, pens, pencils, paper and other back-to-school essentials. By making the POP display more visible, shoppers are reminded that school is around the corner, even if they just stopped in to get a loaf of bread or a carton of milk.

4. Gourmet Items to Finish off a Meal

We’ve seen some very successful examples of gourmet food vendors promoting their goods on the endcaps of related product shelves. Consider shoppers looking to craft a delicious dinner. Someone looking for sauce and spaghetti noodles may buy a loaf of fresh bread or high-end olive oil if they see the products on the pasta aisle endcap.

5. Seasonal Shopping Made Easy

It’s much easier for your shoppers to prepare for a seasonal celebration if you remind them what they want and need with a grocery endcap display. Vendors often find great success in promoting items like chips and salsa with a Cinco de Mayo-themed endcap product display stand, for example. Another popular use for seasonal displays is candy and gifts paired together in Christmas- and Valentine’s Day-themed endcaps.

6. Letting the Product Speak for Itself

An item that is already sold in a recognizable package displaying the brightly colored product doesn’t need much signage to attract attention. Endcaps often prove successful in promoting well-known products simply by showing the sale price in bold letters rather than saying anything about the product itself.

7. The Convenience of Clearance Items

Many shoppers look for discounts and clearance items. Consider Target’s tactic of keeping multiple endcaps by the entrance doors. When customers walk through the door, they see deals on several items. Whether these items are seasonal or you’re trying to sell your remaining inventory of a specific product, endcaps help you increase sales and encourage customers to take advantage of your deals.

Design Tips for Effective Endcap Displays

Many factors contribute to creating endcap displays that are visually appealing and effective. Implement these three tips for powerful endcap displays: 

1. Select Visual Design Elements Carefully

Build the design elements around your product aesthetic. Select colors that enhance your brand and play on the desired emotional triggers. For example, red can stir excitement, making it perfect for eye-catching endcap displays. 

It’s important to place graphics or important messaging at eye level so customers walking by can easily notice them. 

2. Use Clear and Concise Messaging

In many cases, less is more when it comes to marketing products through endcap displays. Keep any messages on your endcap display as concise as possible. Simple and short sentences prevent confusion and resonate better with your audience. Avoid using complicated jargon, which could be off-putting to shoppers walking by who want to grasp what you’re offering quickly. 

3. Maintain Endcap Displays

Untidy and disorganized endcap displays can turn away shoppers, which could reflect poorly on your brand. Ensure you straighten up endcap displays regularly and remove any damaged items. Move the products toward the front of the shelves so they look plentiful.

What Features Make an Effective Endcap Display? 

Endcap displays play a pivotal role in encouraging sales, creating brand awareness and promoting new and exciting products. To be effective, they must possess the following features: 

1. A Thrilling Theme 

The endcap display should have a visually appealing or relevant theme that will catch customers’ attention. For example, during the festive season, a Christmas tree or Santa Claus display would be appropriate for customers doing Christmas shopping. 

The theme should be specific and encourage customers to interact with it. Stick to an organized subject matter to create a clear message.  

2. Cross-Merchandising

Try to arrange with the store to place your endcap display in a relevant aisle. Cross-merchandising is a great way to get shoppers to try a new product. They’re also more likely to consider purchasing it since they would probably be entering the aisle for a similar item. 

For example, if you’re marketing a hot beverage, placing it at one end of the coffee and tea aisle can increase the chances of a customer purchasing it.

3. Clear Branding 

Endcaps are the ideal way to showcase your brand. If you’re a new company or the product is new, endcaps are an effective way to give customers a taste of your selection. They’re an excellent spot to offer samples or showcase other exciting initiatives.

4. Enticing Shoppers 

Visual appeal is crucial for effective endcap displays. They need to be vibrant in color and designed to naturally draw the eye to them. If you’re marketing multiple variants of a product, ensure there’s a space to organize each one. This tip makes it easier for workers to restock appropriately and gives shoppers a more organized and polished look.

Design Custom Endcap Displays With Creative Displays Now!

The endcap is simply the best place to divert customers’ eyes from a store’s competing sights and sounds. Are you ready to make the most of it?

Creative Displays Now specializes in custom corrugated cardboard temporary displays, allowing your brand to optimize your marketing campaigns with affordable temporary solutions. From the colors and images used to the shape and structure, our endcap displays will completely support your vision and needs. We understand the requirements of major retail stores, so our expert designers can create an endcap display that showcases your products beautifully and works with the store’s layout. 

Contact us today to start your project, and we’ll help you with all your custom retail display projects and questions.