Sprouts merchandising team creates customer connections
Sprouts merchandising team creates customer connections
Sprouts Farmers Market Chief Merchandising Officer Scott Neal succinctly defines the role of his team as creating the connections between the chain’s products and its customers.
“We are an attribute driven retailer and we need to curate the selections and create the assortment that speaks to our customers,” he said.
His team of category managers are focused on innovative products and new varieties to delight the Sprouts customer, who over-indexes on looking for what’s new. In fact, every Sprouts store has an innovation destination, Forager Finds, prominently placed near the front of the store. The Forager Finds destination is where many new items are placed on a trial basis to gauge customer response. With a focus on innovation, Sprouts is consistently rotating new items into its assortment.
The Sprouts’ merchandising team is constantly listening to pitch slams that Neal said resemble the Shark Tank pitches on that popular television show. Suppliers have a limited time to make their case as to how an item aligns with Sprouts core mission to help its customers live and eat better and why it’s different and better than what they are already carrying. “The point of differentiation is critical,” Neal stated, noting that a new item has to be unique.
He added that the Forager Finds destination allows Sprouts to test a new product and observe how it resonates with their shoppers before devoting a full-time position for it in the appropriate aisle. Neal believes the Sprouts customer is truly different than the conventional shopper who only frequents a traditional grocery store. “Our customers are selective shoppers and health enthusiasts who are always looking to discover something new,” he said. “They read labels and most are on their own healthy journey.”
He noted that it is Sprouts purpose to help them on that journey and help them find the solutions they are looking for. “We know we are a fill-in retailer,” Neal said, reporting that most Sprouts customers tend to do multiple shops, one at Sprouts and one at another grocery store.
Sprouts has robust fresh sections — including produce, meat and seafood — all taking center stage. Sprouts also carries consum-er-packaged goods, but these are more lim-ited than what you might find at a traditional grocery.
Neal said local is another product attribute that is very important to the Sprouts shopper. This works very well for the fresh produce it sources. A visit to a North Phoenix location featured photos of several Arizona farming operations, including Arizona-based Wholesum Family Farms and Martori Farms, in its entry way. The back wall of the produce section was emblazoned with a sign touting Locally Grown in Arizona.
Neal noted that the chain leans in to locally grown with innovative programs that produce positive results. “One example is a program we have with an organic strawberry grower in Florida,” he said. “We committed to specific acreage before the season. He planted it and in recent weeks (around early December) when strawberries were very tight, our Florida stores all had local supplies. We are always trying to find smaller growers to farm local for us.”
Neal said Sprouts embraces local producers that have enough product to fill a distribution center, but he said hyper-local (filling just a couple of stores with product) is also a possibility.
In further discussing the attributes that resonate with Sprouts shoppers and hence drive the merchandising team efforts, Neal listed organic as being the most important. Also high on the list are gluten-free products. He disclosed that one of the newest health-centric food trends the merchandising team is considering is the avoidance of seed oils. Health-conscious consumers are opting for healthier fats such as olive, avocado and coconut oil over oils from seeds like soybean, corn, canola and sunflower. If the customers are looking at this option as a healthier choice, Sprouts is exploring its validity.
Neal is very excited about the future of Sprouts Farmers Market. Currently the chain is growing at a very fast clip, adding 37 stores in 2025 and aiming for an annual growth rate approaching 10 percent.
“We are in a really unique place,” he said. “We are operating in the health and wellness space at a time when the trends are pointing in our direction.”
He noted that Sprouts has built an authentic story that very much resonates with its customers. Under his direction, the company’s product assortment is constantly changing at a time when its shoppers are looking for that change.
While all of those company attributes are very important to its product-attribute-driven customers, Neal believes the company culture is the difference maker. “We care and we own it,” he emphasized. “Our magic sauce is our people. They are passionate about what they do.”
