In 2015, a retail space-to-sales analysis called the “2015 Grocery SuperStudy” was completed by Willard Bishop, a consumer products data and insights consulting firm. The output of this study provided a look at the share of space a retail department took up in the store as compared to dollar sales and the profit it generated. Ideally, if a department takes up less space and delivers higher true profit, this is a valuable category to retailers.
When the study was conducted in 2015, dairy delivered on these critical attributes. It was reported that, on average, dairy took up 3 percent of the space, drove 10 percent of the dollar sales, and delivered 20 percent of the true profit. The most recent update to this data was completed in 2019, and the story still holds true – dairy is still a very efficient category for retailers using less space and delivering more profit than most sections in the store. Another component was added to this study in 2019, as it seems that 48 percent of large shopping carts (more than 11 items in the basket) have dairy in them. This presents a compelling reason for retailers to sell and promote dairy products and provides a solid foundation for building trust and sales through our Demand work at Midwest Dairy.
Prime Consulting, in partnership with MilkPEP, will expand upon these findings in a webinar planned for September, and Midwest Dairy staff is eager to learn more about how dairy products have grown in the grocery space since.