Web - Expert Article Banner - customer behaviour

6 Ways Open Display Fridges Impact Customer Behaviour

What Are the Impacts of Open Display Fridges On Customer Behaviour?

 

Open display fridges play a crucial role in shaping customer behaviour across retail and food industries. These fridges help businesses boost sales by promoting visibility and encouraging impulse purchases. Positioned strategically in high-traffic areas like checkout zones, they maximise customer attention and simplify decision making. In convenience stores and supermarkets, they showcase a wide variety of ready-to-eat foods, enhancing convenience while increasing revenue.

To learn how these fridges can benefit your business, explore Bromic’s range of multideck open display fridges.

 

 

What is the role of multideck open display fridges?

 

In hospitality, retail, supermarkets, and school canteens, multideck open display fridges are essential for keeping products accessible, fresh, and visually appealing. These fridges are commonly used to display beverages, deli items, dairy products, and ready to eat items like sandwiches or snacks. 

 

Multideck open display fridges either have glass doors or are completely doorless. This encourages impulse buying by making it easy for customers to grab items on the go. Whether positioned near checkout counters or integrated into aisles, these fridges enhance product visibility and accessibility. They are highly convenient for customers, offering the chance to boost your sales.

 

By using cold air circulation, these fridges maintain products at the appropriate temperature range. This ensures food safety and extends the shelf life of perishable items. High-quality components maximise energy efficiency, delivering both cost savings and a dependable performance that contributes to a more sustainable operation by reducing energy consumption.

 

These fridges feature adjustable shelves with both height and angle options, giving businesses even greater flexibility to tailor displays to their needs. The ability to fine-tune the shelf height allows businesses to position high-margin or popular products at eye level and adjusting shelf angles further enhances product visibility, ensuring an engaging and efficient shopping experience. 

 

 

How can multideck open display fridges impact customer behaviour?

 

The strategic use of open display fridges can have a significant impact on customer behaviour, influencing purchasing patterns and boosting sales. Below, we explore 6 ways these fridges affect consumer decisions in retail settings.

 

For further insight on making the most of these fridges in retail settings, check out our complete guide to why multideck open display fridges are important for retail businesses.

 

 

1. Highlighting particular products

Multideck open display fridges serve as powerful merchandising tools, allowing businesses to spotlight products they want to promote. Whether it’s high margin items or well-known brands with strong customer recognition, these fridges ensure that key products are immediately visible and easily accessible to shoppers. By bringing these items to the forefront, businesses can guide customer attention and nudge them towards specific purchases.

 

These fridges are particularly effective for fast moving consumer goods, such as soft drinks or convenience snacks. For these products, brand loyalty and impulse buying play a significant role. Placing these sought after items at eye level or in the centre of the display increases their visibility, improving the likelihood of a sale. Additionally, aligning lighting and product arrangement to enhance these products’ appeal can further boost sales.

 

 

2. Impulse purchases

Multideck open display fridges are designed to trigger impulse buying, encouraging customers to make unplanned purchases. Items such as cold beverages, snacks, pre-packaged sandwiches and desserts perform particularly well in these fridges. That’s because they align with the instant gratification mindset that drives impulse decisions. Placing these products in strategic locations, such as near checkout counters or store entrances, increases the likelihood that customers will grab something as they pass by or wait to pay.

 

Psychologically, impulse purchases are often motivated by a desire for immediate reward, convenience, or novelty. Open display fridges create minimal friction in the buying process, making it easy for customers to act on spontaneous urges. Research has shown that exposure to products in highly visible displays increases the activation of pleasure-seeking impulses, leading customers to make decisions they hadn’t initially planned.

 

The layout and product selection within these fridges can also influence purchasing patterns. For example, arranging seasonal products or new snack varieties in the centre of the fridge can appeal to shoppers seeking something different or more indulgent. When businesses curate their displays thoughtfully, they can maximise revenue per visit by capitalising on impulse buying behaviour. 

 

 

3. Encouragement of trial purchases

Multideck open display fridges offer an excellent way for businesses to encourage trial purchases, helping customers explore new products or unfamiliar brands with ease. These fridges excel at reducing decision barriers. 

 

Businesses can strategically use these fridges by stocking them with high-potential product lines, such as seasonal beverages, limited-time snacks, or new product launches. This strategy aligns with findings in consumer research, which show that exposure to new items in convenient settings encourages both trial and repeat purchases. 

 

Encouraging trial purchases through thoughtful use of open display fridges not only increases immediate sales but also fosters brand loyalty, as positive first experiences with products often lead to repeat buying behaviour. This makes multideck open display fridges a valuable tool for businesses seeking to optimise product exposure and encourage trial purchases.

 

 

4. Range of options

Open display fridges allow businesses to showcase a broad selection of products, giving customers easy access to multiple choices within a single, accessible space. This approach is especially useful for complementary products, such as snacks, drinks, or meal components. It encourages cross-selling and increases the likelihood of multiple purchases. By displaying a diverse range of products, businesses can cater to various customer needs at once and increase sales.  

 

However, retailers must also manage the potential downside of decision fatigue. This is a psychological phenomenon where customers become overwhelmed by too many choices and opt not to purchase anything. Research indicates that too many options can lead to paralysis in decision-making, which may result in lost sales or abandoned purchases. According to Forbes, managing product variety thoughtfully can help prevent this issue. 

 

 

5. Streamlined shopping experience

Open display fridges help create a streamlined shopping experience, allowing customers to grab a drink or snack effortlessly and continue with their day. Their versatility makes them ideal for placement at the end of aisles or near checkout counters, making it even easier for customers to pick up items as they roam through the store. 

 

Research highlights that today’s customers increasingly value convenient and seamless interactions. A streamlined shopping journey helps build customer satisfaction and loyalty, fostering a positive association with the store. When shoppers encounter fewer barriers, such as waiting in lines or dealing with complex layouts, they are more likely to return to the store and make additional purchases in the future.

 

 

6. Implicit social proof

The presence of products in a multideck open display fridge carries an element of implicit social proof that influences customer behaviour. Social proof refers to the psychological phenomenon where people are more inclined to follow the actions or preferences of others, believing that popular choices are inherently better. In retail, customers often assume that the most accessible and prominently displayed products (like those in open fridges) are high in demand or widely recommended.

 

Retailers can leverage this effect by strategically placing their own branded products such as house-label iced coffees or juices alongside well-known or premium brands. This positioning also allows smaller or newer brands to borrow credibility from recognised products.

 

By understanding how social proof influences consumer behaviour, businesses can optimise the layout of their display fridges to enhance product perception and sales performance, turning simple product visibility into an effective marketing strategy.

 

 

 

 

Browse Bromic multideck open display fridges

 

For business owners, Bromic’s range of multideck open display fridges offers more than just cold storage, they are an investment in increased sales and customer satisfaction. Designed with high-traffic retail and hospitality environments in mind, these fridges make it easy to showcase a diverse product range, maximising impulse buys and trial purchases.

 

Built with energy-efficient LED lighting and R290 natural refrigerants, Bromic’s fridges align with our Green Cooling Initiative, helping businesses lower energy costs while meeting sustainability goals. Backed by local expert support across Australia and Extra Care Warranty, these fridges ensure long-term reliability, reducing downtime and maintenance costs.

 

Bromic understands the needs of business owners. Whether you’re enhancing convenience at checkout points or improving product visibility across the store, our fridges are designed to drive profitability. Explore Bromic’s range of multideck open display fridges today and discover how they can help increase sales and streamline operations in your business.