9 ways to maximise the benefit of your commercial refrigerators

Freezers and professional refrigerators at the local grocery store hold many "treasures": boxes of pleasantly packed ready meals, family meals and many other raw ingredients. All of these customer favorites are right inside well-appointed and well-lit professional freezers.

The right freezer is a powerful gateway to countless customer purchases. With clear glass panes, well-lit interiors and organized shelving, stores can attractively display various merchandise and even trigger many impulse buys. The smartest store owners go one step further: They add enticing exciting new offers on these frozen products for customers and advertise them with attention-grabbing graphic designs.

1. Make your products stand out

New freezers are a key element of any successful visual merchandise strategy. The frozen food departments of many grocery stores look identical - and often boring or outdated - because they consist of nothing but long rows of identical refrigerators and freezers. All the attractive merchandise is hidden on the shelves under the glass. Because of this lack of visibility, stores miss the opportunity to sell more of their stock to customers.

Proper and efficient product placement is the first step in any customer purchase, so stores should use new freezers in excellent condition, with clean crystals and sleek, polished profiles.

Frozen stock accounts for almost 50% of the total stock, so having it in front of customers in perfect frozen condition can easily increase sales and guarantee a fresh, quality taste that customers appreciate. The worst thing you can do is leave these items under the solid glass panes of traditional refrigerators and freezers.

2. Better product visibility means increased profit

With clear crystals and bright shelves, your freezers could give your store a big boost in sales. By making merchandise highly visible with attractive packaging, you capture the interest of customers and encourage them to make impulse purchases they otherwise wouldn't make.

In addition to eliminating guesswork when browsing the shelves, vertical freezers with glass doors also make shopping faster and easier because your customers don't have to toil bending through freezers to find what they need.

Commercial glass door freezers are a welcome upgrade to any grocery store, as they promote a pleasant and convenient shopping experience that boosts sales and long-term customer satisfaction.

3. The "eye level" is the "shopping level"

A well-known fact in retail is that customers are more likely to buy what they can easily see. While it's essential to introduce new products with top placement, think about where you're placing them - and what they're surrounded by.

Placing popular items and products with the best margins at eye level are the best tactics. It helps shoppers reduce the time and energy spent reaching up or down to clear shelves for products they always buy. For maximum impact, make sure new products are placed near best-sellers to increase their visibility and pair it with an attractive graphic that highlights your latest offering.

4. Place last-minute impulse buys near the fridges

Every shopper is guilty of dropping a pack of gum, a chocolate bar or a bottle of soda into their cart as they line the checkout aisles. These last-minute purchases harness the power of the purchase impulse as a marketing strategy.

As many of these items often go into refurbished commercial freezers or commercial refrigerators, make sure the display is brightly lit and customized with enticing graphics for special offers that specifically target last-minute purchases.

5. Create bright and attractive LED projection

Supporting increased product visibility through clear glass panes, it is energy efficient LED lighting that brightly illuminates products without the cost of high energy consumption. The warm, bright tones of LED lights make various frozen products shine through glass doors and help customers easily find what they are looking for. In addition, this rich lighting is free of glare, so the colors of the products are rendered accurately and with high contrast that makes them attract customers' attention.

6. Frost-free design exploitation

Another disadvantage for the chest freezers is their static design. This means that they are not built with an automatic defrosting system, so ice can easily build up and accumulate. Not only is it inconvenient or uncomfortable to reach into these freezers in depth, but this also creates freezer burn that can affect the quality and freshness of the product, especially for slower stock.

In contrast, the latest generation of commercial freezers with glass doors feature a forced-cooling design instead of static cooling. These units defrost automatically, so ice does not accumulate. With a commercial glass door freezer, you can store refrigerated stock for longer without the logistical nightmare of logistical support for safe, equally refrigerated temporary storage during necessary outages, as well as for burning or reduced freshness.

7. Use of colors that impress

Color is a key component of many retail displays. For mini-markets in particular, the challenge is to up the typically muted or neutral tones of your commercial appliances, such as glass door freezers, so that the treats stacked on the shelves are even more appealing. The key is to enhance their role beyond storage and make room for attractive graphics to make products appear behind glass windows.

Depending on the brand or product, the use of bright colors on frosted product displays creates excitement for bold, new flavors, while cooler sounds communicate a range of pleasures that allow customers to relax and slow down. From the product packaging to the freezer display, the right colors allow the entire frozen section to stand out and engage customers with the promise of delectable treats.

8. Installation of advanced automation

Modern commercial freezers need the support of monitoring equipment, as none of the manufacturers install such automation, as there may be a compatibility problem depending on the country or location of the refrigerators.

HAM Systems offers the ultimate solution with the HAM ThermoSense logger, having full compatibility with all commercial refrigerators regardless of model, manufacturer, country of origin or country of installation.

The installation of the system is so easy that in many cases a technician is not even needed. All that is required is a Wi-Fi network with an Internet connection. It is additionally possible to install magnetic or terminal sensors to know the status of the door.

9. Save time (= money) from handwritten recordings

HAM Thermosense records the temperature of the cold chamber 24 hours a day, 24 hours a day forever, without monthly charges. Export reports in pdf and csv for any time and step. Print temperature report in case of a health inspection in less than 1 minute!

For more information about the features and easy installation of the HAM ThermoSense device please contact us!

About the author: Panagiotis Lyridis has been involved in the commercial refrigeration industry for over 15 years and has worked with major Greek companies producing commercial refrigerated cabinets.