Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
Canning has seen a boom in popularity and retailers can take advantage by adding canning products to their housewares department or boosting an already existing canning niche. In the July 2021 issue of Hardware Retailing, Cornell’s True Value Hardware shared best practices for a successful canning niche. Below, you’ll find additional tips for selling canning products, what products to stock and ways to reach new canning customers.
3 Tips for Selling the Canning Niche
Check out these tips for retailers looking to add canning supplies to their housewares department or wanting to boost existing sales in this category.
- Market to additional audiences. It’s more than just housewives and crafters using canning supplies, so think outside the box when marketing canning products. Cornell’s True Value Hardware found that cannabis users are another untapped audience. With more states legalizing the drug and dispensaries opening, mason jars will be in even higher demand.
- Get creative with add-ons. Along with the basic supplies, you should also stock easy add-ons and canning accessories such as recipe books, mason jar lids, spatulas and potholders. Stedman’s Hardware in Miles City, Montana, gives away free vinyl canning labels with any purchase of canning supplies. Other add-ons to consider include pickling salts and pectins, which both come in many varieties.
- Advertise at the right time of year. For Cornell’s, tomato season in late summer is their busiest time for canning products. Throughout the summer and early fall, when most gardeners are harvesting their produce, is an ideal time to advertise your canning goods, touting the usefulness of canning to preserve fresh foods throughout the winter. The holidays are another good time to advertise, as people use mason jars for gifting.
Get Customers Canning With These Beginner Recipes
While it’s possible to can nearly any food item, your customers, especially those new to canning, will appreciate tips and tricks to get them started. Consider posting canning basics and recipes on your website or on your canning e-commerce webpage if you have one, to give them a place to start. To get you started, we’ve compiled a list of several go-to canning recipes here.
