Customers and food retailers have placed much more emphasis on the importance of health and wellness in the past few months than ever before. Due to the growing number of people who are more health-conscious, health and wellness food products are in the spotlight. Retailers should seize this opportunity to continue the momentum.

78% of U.S. consumers say that it is important for them to eat healthy food products for their emotional well-being, according to Mintel’s Future of Nutrition, Health and Wellness 2021 Report. Several meal innovations and food items centered around health consciousness have emerged due to the growing demand. Food retailers have a great opportunity to take advantage and further dive into this trend.

As retailers continue to focus on health and wellness and adapt to the omnichannel shopping behavior of customers, it’s important for retailers to truly understand their customers’ needs and wants. With that in mind, here are some ways that food retailers are boosting health and wellness food product sales, whether online or in-store:

Health Education

With the goal of boosting health and wellness product sales, some retailers are integrating health education within their retail stores by employing the help of experts, like dieticians and nutritionists, and have them working in-store for customers to directly approach and ask questions. Allowing customers to ask health experts in-person about the health benefits of the products they are purchasing is a great way to keep customers engaged. As well, it goes a long way towards promoting trust in your business.  Likewise, retailers are offering healthy meal recipes together with their health-conscious offerings to promote their products and influence bigger customer baskets.

Online Personalization Tool

Focus on health and wellness has achieved a prominent presence online. Acknowledging this fact, another strategy to increase sales on health and wellness products is focusing on personalization tools utilizing the store’s online grocery platform. Tools, such as preference settings, meal planning apps, nutritional benefits, and quality calculators are gaining in popularity. These tools allow customers to customize their shopping experience online by optimizing their healthy food choices, aligning these choices with their individual health goals. Additionally, tools such as these can be used to suggest healthy meal ideas and help the customer keep track of the health benefits of their online purchases.

Highlighting Better-for-You Products In-Store

In order to further reach health-conscious shoppers, retailers must acknowledge the importance of highlighting healthy foods in-store through shelf labeling, in-store promotion and messaging, and strategic merchandising. Placing “better-for-you” items in a spotlight within the customers’ plain view by using merchandisers that offer maximum product visibility greatly influences customer buying decisions.

In the food retail industry, we have witnessed trends, innovations and disruptions occur over time—and consumers prioritizing their individual health and wellness is just one of those. Retailers’ renewed focus on health for their customers isn’t just a way to enlarge that customer basket and capture a greater share of their spending dollars, but more so, encouraging customers to live a healthier and better quality of life.