GUEST COLUMNIST — Lizzie Werber
The Case for Experience in Today’s Retail Ecosystem
Lizzie Werber is director of U.S. retail business development for the California Milk Advisory Board, Tracy, California, where she leads planning, execution and analysis of consumer promotions, including retailer-specific shopper marketing programs, e-commerce and direct-to-consumer activations.
Today’s grocery consumer is more agile, and less loyal, than ever. Expectations are high, time is tight and shoppers want to maximize the value of every dollar spent. Retailers and brands have long known that experience sells, but as operating costs have climbed, many have been forced to cut back on the very things that most effectively drive meaningful growth: strong customer experiences rooted in storytelling.
As the industry gears up to kick off the 2026 trade show circuit next week at Winter FancyFaire, both buyers and brands risk falling behind if they don’t keep this shift front and center.
What ‘Experiential Selling’ Looks Like Today
From an operational standpoint, retailers and suppliers are battling rising costs on all fronts, squeezing margins and putting high-labor departments like deli under even tighter constraints. At the same time, shelf space is becoming more competitive than ever.
Traditionally, store associates have been the most reliable way to bring a brand and product story to life. While associates remain powerful advocates and should not be discounted, more consumers are shopping deli online — or through third-party platforms like Instacart — where that human connection may not exist at all.
For brands that have historically relied on in-store teams to engage customers, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. Does the experience your product offers translate online? Have you shopped your category across platforms to evaluate the customer experience firsthand? What items are shoppers pairing with yours — and how can those insights help your retail partners grow total basket size?
Answering these questions not only strengthens execution, but it also allows brands to bring buyers a more compelling, data-driven story backed by relevant consumer behavior.
Understand the Moment You’re Meeting Your Customer In
Beyond knowing how your product shows up against competitors, brands must get clear on something even more important: what moment is your customer shopping for when they reach for your item?
Few departments reflect these moments more clearly than deli and bakery. In addition to weekly staples, customers turn to these departments most when celebrating milestones such as graduations, birthdays, holidays and everyday wins.
So where does your product fit — big or small?
Traditionally, celebrations have been anchored by cakes and crowd-friendly desserts. But today’s consumers are increasingly looking for right-sized indulgence that reflects smaller, more intimate occasions. Brands like Sweet Craft, which offers single-serve, clean-label Italian-style desserts, meet this need especially well.
For retailers, products like these are also low-labor solutions that require no advance prep beyond stocking.
On the savory side, King Cheese provides meat-and-cheese rollups that simplify snacking for families and busy shoppers on the go. Both brands also lean into seasonal and trend-driven flavors — an important advantage in the deli, where curiosity and discovery can drive incremental purchases.
Storytelling (and Selling) Outside the Store
More than ever, consumers begin their shopping journey online — often long before they enter a store. Social media is increasingly where shoppers discover products, get ideas and build their shopping lists.
Yet many brands still treat social media and retail sales as two separate worlds. In reality, they’re converging.
On the buyer side, category managers are increasingly factoring a brand’s digital presence into decisions about new items, particularly when that presence can act as a lever to drive trial and velocity in store.
The strongest brands on shelf have more than a great product; they have a story that resonates with today’s consumer and inspires purchase.
Marin French Cheese is a great example. The brand uses digital storytelling to highlight its heritage while showcasing creative recipes, shareable cheese boards and seasonal moments that feel authentic and distinctive. That kind of narrative is difficult to communicate on shelf alone, but it can be a powerful engine for retail demand when social strategy is built to support in-store performance.
With the right approach, even smaller brands with lean marketing budgets can create a brand ecosystem that drives both engagement and sales.
Don’t Forget Brick-and-Mortar
Finally, brands can’t overlook the physical shelf itself. Even as shopping becomes more digital, merchandising fundamentals still determine whether an item gets noticed, understood and purchased.
Not every retailer will have the labor or budget to support beautiful signage, which means packaging and the merchandising plan often have to do the heavy lifting.
Are the attributes that matter most to your shopper clear and communicated front and center? Can customers understand what your product offers in two seconds or less?
Many brands design labels around a preferred placement and stop there. But every retail environment is different, and products get moved — shifted to new cases, different shelving, alternate lighting or locations with different display parameters. If your key callouts disappear when that happens, you lose the sale.
Instead, consider the widest range of merchandising realities during label development. No matter where the product lands, the shopper should immediately understand why it belongs in their basket — and for what moment.
The views expressed by CMN’s guest columnists are their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of Cheese Market News®.
Written exclusively for Cheese Market News. Copyright 2025 Quarne Publishing LLC.