You move more apples when they are big, of the right color and free of defects. Correctly classify the size and color and you'll have a stellar season. But how do you achieve this? By investing in technology that quickly and efficiently assesses size, color, shape, and defects digitally.
Procuring high quality, large-sized apples is the very first step to increasing sales.
The technology does an incredible job of reducing blemished or defective fruit from reaching the final pack. Furthermore, it allows you to hit customers based on the specific size or color of the fruit.
There are more opportunities, besides precision sorting and grading, businesses can explore to increase sales of apples.
Work towards better sales economics
A strategy to enhance apple sales is targeting fruits based on the consumer demographics of your customers. When supplying budget-conscious retailers, deliver smaller-sized apples.
For most fruits, size and price are typically inversely proportional.
Why? The majority of the sales of such retailers fall into the ‘value’ category, not premium. Additionally, target fruits that are still within the shelf-life window but may have crossed the taste life period (the prime time to eat a fruit).
However, for retailers catering to a premium segment where price doesn’t influence the buying decision, supplying apples well within taste life is the smarter marketing tactic.
Giving a guarantee of how long the fruit will last or, better yet, an extended fridge life is another route to reaching sales economics.
Bigger packs, like a 10 oz. bag of fresh-cut apples, sell less because consumers regularly throw away a third of them. The quality deteriorates before it is utilized, and for the consumer, that’s money wasted.
But if the fridge life is longer, they get sufficient time to use it all. And that becomes the impetus for more bulk buying. How do you prolong fridge life? Besides better handling and packaging practices, by optimizing the quality of incoming fresh produce through digital tools.
Gain competitive differentiation through digitized data
Data is the strongest weapon in your arsenal.
When you're dealing with 30 to 40 different apple suppliers, quantitative data on quality, defect, size, and colour becomes your yardstick. It’s easier to compare one grower with another who supplies better taste life or shelf life, allowing you to make informed decisions.
Another route to driving apple sales is analyzing collated data on which variety of apple sells like hot cakes in which locations, and then plan accordingly. A tool that measures and records quality and offers KPI based analytics can prove invaluable.
If you’re an apple grower, shipper, packer or retailer, Intello Track can help bring both these strategies to fruition.
