5 tips to upgrade your food product display

Whether you work in a small, independent bakery or a larger scale commercial catering establishment, the way that your food product display is presented is important to your customers.

Whilst it is essential to clearly display all of the products in your offering, this should be done in both an eye-catching and orderly fashion to best appeal to your customer base. If the saying, “we eat first with our eyes” is true, your food product display is the first consideration in the customer’s journey to purchase.

Counterline have compiled some innovative ideas for maximising the sales from your food product display counter and upgrading the overall aesthetic of your offering.

Capitalise on customer preferences

Although you have no way of knowing for sure what a customer is going to purchase when they walk through the door, by taking note of your bestselling items and displaying them appropriately, you can make sure that they can find exactly what they are looking for. Many establishments make the mistake of overloading their counters with stock so that it looks full and appealing, however this can often have the opposite effect. Keeping your food product display neat and organised will certainly lead to more customers making purchases, rather than walking away confused, overwhelmed and empty handed.

Consider laying out products like pastries and sandwiches in pairs to give the appearance of a plentiful offering without over facing the customer.

Lighting

Illuminated food product display counters are perfect for helping your products stand out. By choosing lighting that highlights and compliments the products, you can enhance their natural appearance. Consider using a warm, soft light to best illuminate your unit and help your products shine. Click here for more guidance on the correct lighting for your products.

Display the name and price of food items clearly

This may seem like an obvious one, however, many commercial catering establishments miss out on sales due to poorly labelling their products. To allow customers to easily and conveniently select the items they want, you must ensure that you allocate clear tags with the product name and price to each item you serve. Often customers will not make a purchase if this information is not clear to them from the start, especially in convenience store and quick-service settings. Although they could always ask the question, many of them will not.

When creating tags, check that they are easily readable from a distance and any essential detail, such as whether the item is suitable for vegans or vegetarians, is also included. Keep the colours plain and avoid hard-to-read fonts while using tags on your food items for maximum impact.

Keep it clean

Another obvious point, but an extremely important one. When dealing with perishables such as food and drink products, maintaining a clean environment for them is essential. You must provide full staff training for the cleaning and replenishment of your food product display units. This not only helps food products retain their freshness and flavour, it also keeps them safe for consumption.

Most, if not all, food product display counters have a glass element to them. Dirty fingerprints and smears on display glass can be very off-putting for customers so be sure to enforce a regular cleaning schedule. Reducing any unnecessary clutter around the display units can also contribute to a cleaner and more organised appearance.

Your food display unit of choice

Displaying your food products in an appealing way can only be done effectively with the use of a functional counter. Choosing the correct food display unit for your food retail offering will enhance the visual appearance of your products. Counterline offer many units suitable for chilled, ambient and hot-hold food products. Our team of experts are always on hand to offer any advice or guidance on the right counter for your food product display.