Store Owner’s Guide: Choosing and Designing the Right Shopping Basket

With over 63,000 grocery stores and supermarkets in the United States, there are a lot of places to choose from when buying groceries. Customers may choose to shop based on location and prices, but that isn’t the only reason why they come back to your store.

Customer service, cleanliness, and ease of shopping are among the criteria that can separate one store from another. While something as simple as a shopping basket may not be a deal-breaker for people to pick one store over another, offering them quality baskets in easy-to-find locations can add to their shopping experience.

Continue reading for some tips on how to design the right basket for your store.

Size of the Shopping Basket

Depending on how big your shopping location is, you may want to offer larger or smaller baskets. When shopping in a convenience store, customers are often only grabbing a couple of items and don’t want to use a large, bulky basket. Your convenience store design may call for smaller aisles and you want your customers to be able to maneuver down them.

Mini mesh baskets could be a good fit for your store as they won’t take up much room by the front doors, and they’ll allow for the quick in and out shopping experience patrons of this type of store expect.

At a supermarket, a large plastic basket is often offered. These have wide handles that make heavier loads easier to carry, in case the customer grabs more items than they intended. The handles fold down while being stored and stack on top of each other, so even though they are bigger, they don’t take up as much room.

Location

The main place where you usually see shopping baskets when you walk into a grocery store is by the front doors so that shoppers can grab them when they come in. Setting up extra locations for your shopping baskets around the store can make for some happy customers. Especially those who thought they only needed one or two items and end up with an arm full.

Designing a storage rack for baskets that is easy to spot and can hold several baskets is a smart choice for the customer service savvy store owner.

Eco-Friendly

If you are a business owner with customers that love purchasing cloth shopping bags, having a stock of foldable shopping baskets available for purchase helps not only the environment but your sales as well. Offer incentives for purchasing and using the baskets, like 5% off when you shop with them.

Designing a basket with your customers in mind (like adding a pocket on the side for credit cards or phones) and adding your store logo makes these designs a unique addition to your store.

Give Your Customers What They Want

A shopping basket won’t define your store, but it can help your customers and your sales. Whether they choose the basket or the shopping cart, make sure you are giving your shoppers what they want.

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