How Supermarkets and Grocery Stores Optimize Shelf Layouts to Boost Sales

The way products are arranged on supermarket shelves is no random thing. Every decision on what products to place at eye level, what products to display together, and how to organize the aisles between rows of shelves is carefully planned to influence shopping behavior and maximize sales.

Grocery stores use a combination of shopper psychology, data analysis, and the best technology to create the optimal shelf layout. Some retailers do this in-house, using planogramming software to optimize product placement, while others hire consultants to develop strategic shelf planning for stores to achieve the best results. But regardless of the approach, fine-tuning your product display is a constant process of trial and error.

In this article, we'll look at how supermarkets use strategic shelf placement to increase profits, improve the shopping experience, and get customers to buy more.

Key Strategies for Shelf Layout Optimization

1. The Psychology of Product Placement

Supermarkets design their layouts based on customer psychology, subtly influencing purchasing decisions. Here’s how:

Eye-Level = Buy Level – best-selling and high-margin items are placed at eye level to increase visibility and sales. Less profitable or store-brand products are often placed higher or lower on shelves.

Impulse Buys at Checkout – candy, gum, and small snacks are placed at checkout counters, where shoppers make last-minute purchases while waiting in line.

Essential Items at the Back – staples like milk, eggs, and bread are placed at the far end of the store, forcing customers to pass through other items that interest them.

Kids' Eye Level Products – Sugary cereals, colorful snacks, and toys are often positioned at children’s eye level, influencing their parents' buying decisions.

2. Store Layout and Aisle Flow Optimization

The physical structure of a supermarket affects customer movement, product visibility, and purchasing behavior. Key elements include:

• Broad vs. Narrow Aisles – Wider aisles improve comfort and navigation, but narrower aisles can create a sense of urgency, leading to faster decision-making and more impulse buys.
• Endcap Displays – The ends of aisles (endcaps) feature high-margin or seasonal promotions, increasing visibility and sales.
• Cross-Merchandising – Complementary products are placed together to encourage larger purchases (e.g., chips next to salsa, pasta near sauces).
• Store Flow Design – Many grocery stores use a loop or racetrack layout, directing traffic around the perimeter before moving through the center aisles.

Retailers often rely on store layout consultants to determine the best aisle structure based on customer flow patterns and space efficiency. 

However, using the PlanoHero service, you can get valuable insights into space planning and layout using a heat map. This tool allows you to identify the hottest and coldest areas of the store, i.e. the places where the highest and lowest sales of goods were recorded. The heat map information can be customized to track sales of specific products at specific periods.

3. Vendor Agreements and Slotting Fees

Shelf placement isn’t always under the supermarket’s control. Many brands pay slotting fees to secure premium shelf positions, particularly eye-level spots and endcaps. Big-name brands often dominate these areas, making it harder for smaller brands to get prime shelf space.
 

How Supermarkets Optimize Shelf Layouts 

1. Planogram Software and Data-Driven Decisions

Supermarkets don’t just guess which layouts work best—they use planogram software and sales analytics to optimize product placement. These tools help retailers:

• Analyze sales data to determine high- and low-performing products.

• Use heatmaps to track customer movement and identify high-traffic zones.
• Adjust shelf layouts dynamically, ensuring compliance across store locations.

Retailers with multiple locations use AI-powered merchandising tools to maintain store consistency while allowing localized adjustments. Thus, summarizing the layout on a planogram using the AI Rules tool in PlanoHero allows you to generate rules for layout using artificial intelligence in minutes and apply these rules in all chain stores.

2. A/B Testing and Trial-and-Error Approach

Even with data, there’s no universal formula for the perfect shelf layout. Stores should experiment with different product placement options to understand what works best. 

Product rotation is a service functionality that helps to manage the assortment: quickly replace one product with another on individual planograms or simultaneously on all planograms and store plans. PlanoHero automatically adjusts the display during the rotation, considering new products and equipment parameters.

Retailers test different options for organizing space and shelving arrangements to confirm or refute hypotheses. After receiving the results of the experiments, they adapted the layout to increase sales. 
In addition, factors such as seasonality, regional preferences, store size, and customer demographics affect the effectiveness of the display.

3. Cross-merchandising & Seasonal Strategies

Cross-merchandising strategies are grouping complementary products together on shelves - for example, placing marinades next to meat, breakfast cereals next to milk, pasta next to sauce, or chips next to soda. These combinations encourage more purchases. In addition, supermarkets often change their displays according to seasons, holidays, and trends to keep the shopping experience fresh and attractive.

Seasonal Adjustments – Halloween candy in October, holiday gift packs in December, and BBQ essentials in summer.

Bundle Strategies – Placing marinades next to grilling meats or breakfast cereals near milk to drive convenience-based purchases.

The Benefits of an Optimized Shelf Layout

A well-designed shelf layout leads to:

• Higher Sales & Profit Margins – Strategic placement increases impulse buys and product visibility.
• Better Inventory Management – Prevents stockouts and improves turnover rates.
• Improved Customer Experience – A logical, easy-to-navigate store makes shopping more enjoyable.

For retailers looking to take their layout strategy to the next level, planogram tools can simplify the merchandising process and increase profitability. Those who invest in data-driven merchandising strategies have a better chance of success in today's competitive retail environment.

Find out how PlanoHero helps retailers optimize their planogramming process. Want to optimize your store’s layout? Try PlanoHero for free!