Selling refrigerated, frozen, or beverage products online can be a logistical nightmare. Shipping costs, packaging requirements, and the risk of products arriving in poor condition make direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales challenging. Additionally, consumers typically prefer purchasing these products in-store, further complicating online sales strategies. But that doesn’t mean digital marketing has no place in driving sales for these brands.

The Retail Channel – Why It’s Essential

For most frozen, refrigerated, and beverage brands, retail is the dominant sales channel. Founders must realize that selling through retail doesn’t mean relinquishing responsibility for driving sales. Even after placing products on a retailer’s shelf, it’s still up to the brand to attract customers and push them to purchase. This mindset shift is crucial. Retailers may provide shelf space and customer trust, but brands must own the marketing process that drives consumers to stores.

The challenge with retail, however, is the lack of data. When selling through retail channels, brands lose valuable information like inventory levels, purchase data, and personal customer insights, making it harder to understand and influence buyer behavior. The key to overcoming this is to build a strong digital path to purchase that drives consumers to retail partners while collecting actionable data for future campaigns.

Building the Digital Path to Purchase

To drive retail sales, brands should shift their focus to building digital paths that lead to retailer websites, such as Walmart.com, Target.com, or Instacart. This is what makes your digital marketing “shoppable.” The goal is to invest in sending shoppers from your digital platforms directly to retail partners where they are most likely to make a purchase.

By creating these pathways, you can start gathering valuable customer insights and build tailored marketing strategies. For instance, directing traffic through your social media link tree or including a “Find in Store” button on your website are simple but effective ways to guide consumers toward making a purchase.

Mindset Shift: Full Attribution Isn’t Always Possible

When investing in digital marketing for retail sales, a common frustration is the inability to track the exact ROI of ads. Emerging brands need to shift their mindset and accept that full attribution is often not feasible. Instead, focus on overall sales movement over a period and use various proxies to gauge the impact of marketing efforts. The objective is to create multiple touchpoints that drive customers along the purchase journey, even if you can’t directly connect every click to a sale.

Omni-Channel Marketing: Blending Physical and Digital Experiences

Success in digital marketing comes from blending both online and offline strategies. Retail channels are where many consumers trial new products. Your goal is to use digital touchpoints—whether they are social media posts, emails, or in-store promotions—to nurture customers through the stages of awareness, consideration, purchase, and repeat buying.

Incorporate these tactics:

• Retailer Links on Digital Platforms: Use links to retail partners in your social media profiles, website store locators, and email newsletters. This guides customers to purchase your products in-store or through retailer websites.
• Capturing First-Party Data: Engage with consumers during in-store demos or via online platforms by offering discounts or other incentives. Collect emails, phone numbers, and purchase information to build a list of engaged shoppers.
• Retargeting and Lookalike Audiences: Use the data you collect to retarget customers who have engaged with your brand or build lookalike audiences for more effective advertising.

Awareness and Audience Building

The first step in any marketing strategy is building awareness. However, for frozen, refrigerated, and beverage brands, it’s essential to extend awareness to include where the product is available for purchase. Brands should leverage digital touchpoints like social media, email, and website content to drive customers to nearby retailers.

Building awareness isn’t just about running ads; it’s about capturing audiences through different forms of content. This audience can then be nurtured and retargeted, ultimately leading them through the purchase funnel.

Effective Ad Strategies

When it comes to advertising, it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. The ads you run should match where your customers are in their buying journey. For example:

• Awareness Ads: Focus on educating potential customers about your product and where it can be purchased.
• Consideration Ads: Target those who have interacted with your brand, providing further information or a coupon to incentivize purchase.
• Purchase and Retargeting Ads: Show offers to customers who have already demonstrated high intent, such as clicking through to a retailer’s website.

Collecting First-Party Data and Creating Customer Relationships

First-party data is crucial in building strong customer relationships. Techniques like offering rebates for in-store purchases or setting up receipt scanning for discounts help gather valuable customer data, such as emails or phone numbers.

This data allows you to segment customers based on their purchasing habits and craft tailored marketing messages. By collecting emails, you can keep customers informed about product availability, special promotions, and new launches, encouraging repeat purchases. Additionally, you can use this data to create lookalike audiences for digital ads, extending your reach to potential customers who are similar to your current buyers.

Starting Points for Brands: Implementing Digital Marketing for Retail Sales

Start by identifying all the touchpoints where it makes sense to guide customers to retail purchases:

• Include retailer links on social media profiles.
• Add store locators and “Where to Buy” buttons on your website.
• Use pop-ups or landing pages with retailer links.
• Integrate calls-to-action in email newsletters to encourage in-store shopping.

These actions will help build your digital path to purchase and collect valuable data. The more traffic you drive through these pathways, the more insights you’ll gather, enabling you to refine your marketing strategy.

Introducing Pear Commerce: Making Digital Marketing Shoppable

If this process seems overwhelming, you’re not alone. Many brands struggle to build effective digital marketing strategies that drive retail sales. This is where services like Pear Commerce come into play. Pear Commerce specializes in helping CPG brands build “shoppable” digital experiences that drive customers directly to retail partners. By creating a seamless path to purchase, Pear Commerce helps brands bridge the gap between digital marketing and retail success.

With tools designed to track customer interactions, understand shopper behavior, and tailor messaging, Pear Commerce enables brands to capture valuable insights and optimize their marketing strategies for better sales outcomes. Whether you need help building digital pathways or want to create more sophisticated retargeting campaigns, Pear Commerce has the expertise to support your brand’s growth.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

If you’re ready to boost sales and take your frozen, refrigerated, or beverage brand’s digital marketing strategy to the next level, reach out to Pear Commerce for an introduction. They can help you build a path to purchase that works, driving your customers from online engagement to in-store purchases seamlessly.