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How To Make Sure Your Shopping Carts Are On-Brand

Thursday, June 30, 2022 9:55 AM

How To Make Sure Your Shopping Carts Are On-Brand

Expanding your marketing campaign for your store can be difficult, especially when it comes to learning where how to advertise. However, a significant portion of advertising for brick-and-mortar locations isn’t about drawing customers into a place of business. Rather, it’s about asserting that business’s brand once customers are there. Think about the difference between a generic pizza box and a branded box that prominently features the pizzeria’s logo. This box doesn’t bring anyone new into the door, but it helps make orders more memorable, leading to more repeat business.

The same goes for retail outlets. When it comes to reinforcing a store’s brand, shopping carts feature form and function. Even the simple handle, a part of the cart that is often in a shopper’s line of sight, can be prime real estate for a store to display its name and logo. Advertising using your shopping carts is a ubiquitous method of getting your brand out there, but what’s the best way to do it? Here are a few ways to make sure your shopping carts are on-brand.

Match the Color Scheme

If you look at major retailers, no matter which one, the color scheme will always match the carts. If the logo of a certain store is green, green will likely show up on their walls and carts, and there’s a reason for this. Everything should remind your customer to buy from you, and you can implement that by matching the color to your overarching brand. On a more practical note, if one of your carts “goes rogue” in the parking lot, you’ll know which one is yours.

The Power of Shopping Cart Design

Oddly enough, the design of the shopping cart can cause people to buy more as well. A study from February 15th, 2022, indicates that having the hands on the sides of the carts jutting out—similar to a walking chair—can cause people to buy more from your store. This also gives it a unique look, setting you apart from the crowd while increasing your bottom line.

You also have to think of the type of cart you’ll use. Plastic carts are lighter than metal ones, making them easy to maneuver, but metal grocery carts are more durable and less prone to falling apart after an accident. This makes it easier for people with disabilities to get around, and since vertical handles are simpler to move for many, they’ll find your store more accessible. Therefore, they’ll be more likely to come in.

The accessible grocery store design is something that many store owners overlook since most people can get around fine. However, if you do this, you’ll miss out on a core demographic within your customer base. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling office supplies or groceries; people with disabilities do the same thing as everyone else. Designing carts for them will cause them to come to your store more readily than others.

You might also want to make yours family-friendly. Make sure you have a space for children to sit in. It might also help to get “stoppers” on your wheels to help stop the cart before an accident. All these things increase accessibility, which means that more people will be apt to come to your store over others.

You’ll also want to make your shopping cart bigger than normal. Studies show that consumers buy up to 40 percent more when they are double in size. This is important because it’ll help increase revenue and give you more space for advertising your brand.

Advertise on Your Carts

In addition to having a color scheme related to your brand, you should also advertise your company logo and name on the cart. Owning a business means getting your message out there, and the best way to do this would be to put your company logo on your cart. In a sense, this is a principle that everyone uses. You can’t walk into a major retailer and not see advertisements on the cart, especially in these three places:

  • Facing you in front of the top portion where a child will sit
  • Facing the end of it where customers will see it
  • Facing the side of the cart so that the logo is visible by anyone passing adjacent to it

Placement of advertisements is important. Advertisements must always be customer-facing, or they’ll be ineffective. For instance, you’ll never see a sign on the bottom of a metal grocery cart facing the floor or in the main basket facing the client upward.

Shopping baskets are smaller, so you need to be more strategic with advertisement placement. This can be tricky, but make sure the advertisement isn’t hanging off the basket since it’ll make the prospective buyer uncomfortable and more likely not to return.

Target Your Message

This point goes back to knowing your demographic. You need to look at the zip code, gender group, and age of your clientele. Tailor your advertisements to your target demographic accordingly. Beyond working on your brand, if you have a slogan or sentence that your target demographic can relate to, what would it be? You’ll want to answer these questions to stand out in your marketing campaign.

If your surrounding area is full of younger college students, like in a college town, your advertisements on everything, including your grocery carts, will be different. It’s important to remember that the slightest thing can influence buyer behavior, including colors and slogans. Try to come up with an ad that speaks to the needs of your “people.”

Smart Shopping Carts

We’re all familiar with the self-checkout kiosk at major stores, but modern technology takes things one step further. Some stores have shopping carts with QR codes on them that allow their customers to take advantage of special deals and sign up for rewards cards automatically. Some major retailers are experimenting with buggies that weigh and tally the items when the customer places them in the basket or cart.

These technological advancements aren’t standard yet, but they may be in a few years. Why not take the jump and distinguish yourself from other stores by embracing it while it’s still new? This will greatly help your mission to keep your shopping carts on-brand.

There are a ton of ways to brand and rebrand your store. Shopping carts are one of the best ways to get into customers’ heads that’s subtle but has long-term results. Keeping your shopping carts on-brand is one of the best ways to promote customer retention.



How To Make Sure Your Shopping Carts Are On-Brand

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