Woolworths Avocado Retail Education, Training and Merchandising FY25 (AV24014)
Project start date: 19/03/2025
Project completion date: 07/12/2025
Summary:
The 2025 Woolworths Avocado Retail Education Program has been developed to overcome key barriers to Australian avocado purchases. These barriers include issues with quality (such as ripeness at purchase, poor overall condition, and early bruising) and limited knowledge among retail staff regarding varietal characteristics, proper handling, storage, ripening, and in-store display of avocados.
The program is educating retail staff on best-in-class behaviours for both Hass and Shepard varieties including:
- Key selling messages of each variety
- Supply chain management, handling, storage and display in-store
- Displaying avocados at various stages of ripeness (both ready to eat and ripen at home) and avoiding bruising when merchandising
- Intent, conversion at the shelf and ultimately increase in consumer satisfaction due to improved quality
Trained merchandisers are being deployed to a select number of Woolworths stores, conducting multiple visits to carry out retail staff surveys, audit avocado fixtures and storage, and provide training on best practices. They are also responsible for deploying point of sale (POS) materials both in-store and in the store’s back-of-house storage areas.
Merchandiser training will be conducted by D2C, supported by informational videos and training materials provided by Hort Innovation, and hosted on an accessible eLearning platform to enable top-up training.
Through enhanced education, the program will improve the consumer experience, address purchasing barriers, and ultimately drive incremental sales opportunities.
This project is a strategic levy investment in the Hort Innovation Avocado Fund