While the best-practices behind maximizing gum sales aren’t complicated in theory, they can be challenging for some retailers to execute consistently.
To keep gum sales climbing, simply stock the hottest brands and flavors and the most popular package sizes. Keep the gum shelves full, well-organized and neatly merchandised. Remove slow-selling items. Include freestanding displays where space permits. Offer healthy and functional alternatives. Take advantage of strong promotional deals. Keep prices as low as rising costs triggered by global supply chain difficulties will allow, and place product close to the registers for impulse pick-up. Provide advertising and social media support.
Ok, so it may be a bit easier said than done, but convenience stores do these things all the time across many other product categories, which means they can succeed in the gum segment too.
Along with soda and beer, gum remains the quintessential impulse item, with the majority of buyers picking up a pack only once they have seen it.
Gum Trends
Consumers love old favorites like Trident, Dubble Bubble, Wrigley’s Doublemint and Winterfresh, Orbit, Ice Breakers Ice Cubes and Mentos. But they always have their eyes open for innovation, too. Retailers must keep up to date with the latest trends in the category, from plastic bottle packaging to popular new flavors.
At the National Confectioners Association’s 25th annual Sweets & Snacks Expo in Chicago this past May, Mars Wrigley’s EXTRA brand was honored with a Most Innovative New Product Award in the Gum & Mints category for its new EXTRA Refreshers Fruity Mix Chewing Gum – a fruity mix pack of flavored gum that includes flavors Strawberry Freeze, Tropical Mist and Lemonade Chill.
Younger consumers, who are credited with nearly half of total gum sales, consistently say they prefer those fruity flavors as well as natural ingredients. Biodegradable chewing gums made without synthetic polymers are also profiting from strong word of mouth among cohorts.
“Functional” is turning out to be more than a marketing buzzword. London-based research firm TechNavio recently published a report titled “Functional Chewing Gum Market by Product (Oral health gum, Nicotine gum, Weight gum, and Lifestyle gum) and Geographic (APAC, Europe, North America, MEA, and South America) — Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025” that indicates that the functional chewing gum market size is expected to increase by $2.06 billion from 2020 to 2025, and that the market’s growth momentum will accelerate at a compound annual growth rate of 4%.
The key trend fueling the functional chewing gum’s market growth is recycling chewing gum into new polymers, TechNavio executives said. The primary factor driving its market growth is the increasing demand for nicotine gum used in smoking-cessation therapy.
While gum sales struggled in the early days of the pandemic as customers masked up, sales are soaring again as customers return to the category. Retailers who stay on top of best practices and stock the latest trends are likely to see it pay off for their gum segment.
