In the petrol and convenience channel, energy drinks have consistently sat as the best-selling product in the non-alcoholic ready-to-drink category and exceed soft drinks by a considerable margin.
In general, convenience is all about immediate consumption and energy drinks also have a high incidence of impulse purchases.
According to the Australasian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS) State of the Industry Half Yearly Report 2020, after growing at 4.4 per cent, the total beverage category was hit with MAT growth dropping to just one per cent, and the last quarter declined at 0.6 per cent. But energy drinks maintained strong growth on a MAT basis of 3.8 per cent.
As such, the petrol and convenience channel remains crucial for the energy drinks category and Sam Thiele, Vice President – Oceania, Monster Energy Company, says that “simplicity is key” when it comes to optimising sales.
Here are his seven simple tips for petrol and convenience retailers:
- Category space: Ensure that energy drink space allocations reflect their status as the number one non-alcoholic RTD category in the channel. Average price yield is also higher than soft drink so primary category position and space is advantageous to the retailer.
- Always chilled: Consumers are much more likely to buy an energy drink if it’s chilled. Make sure shoppers have easy access to cold cans.
- Stocking the best range: In a mature beverage market innovation is critical to recruiting new consumers and providing more occasions to consume. Ensure a clear balance of core and innovation and ensure that you stock products in all the main subsegments of energy drinks.
- Help the shopper: To help shoppers navigate efficiently, group brands and the different energy subsegments together. If possible, use signage to make the segments clear – Traditional – Zero Sugar – Flavored – Performance etc.
- Secondary space: Energy drinks are big drivers of impulse sales so it’s important to disrupt consumers in multiple locations around the store and especially on the walking path to purchase.
- Energy drinks are exciting: Bring the energy drinks category to life in-store.
- Clear and competitive pricing: Convenience shoppers say that clear pricing is important as the visible price point is reassuring for value conscious consumers.
In summary, energy drinks are the most important RTD beverage category in the petrol and convenience channel, delivering year-on-year growth ahead of total beverages.
So, the opportunity for retailers is significant, and with a strong product range and an ample amount of space allocation both in fridges and ambient, retailers should be able to notice an increase of sales from the category.
This is an excerpt from an energy drinks category feature written for the February / March issue of Convenience & Impulse Retailing Magazine.