Shelf Presence Is a Strategy: How We Educated Brands at Fancy Food 2026

At the 2026 Specialty Food Association (SFA) Summer Fancy Food Show, we brought together three voices who know retail from every angle — a founder who’s navigated it from the ground up, a designer who shapes how brands show up in the wild, and a buyer who decides what makes the cut.

The conversation, moderated by Enthuse Foundation Co-Founder and Enthuse Marketing CEO Kim Lawton, featured Ashley Nickelsen, Founder & CEO of B.T.R. Nation (2o21 Pitch Competition Winner), Diana Panek, Senior Creative Director at Enthuse Marketing Group, and John Lawson, Forager at Whole Foods Market.

Here were some of their insights.

Design for all types of shelves and locations. Many founders design their packaging for how it looks on a desk or a screen, not how it behaves on a shelf surrounded by forty competitors under fluorescent lighting. Those are completely different environments, and the gap between them is where brands get into trouble. John also suggested that founders should plan as if they’re at the bottom-left corner of the lowest shelf. Design and strategy built for the worst placement will hold up anywhere. Not every brand can have top-level placement, so plan for all situations.

Product role-play. Ashley recommended that brands go to the store, put their product where they think it will live, and take three steps back. Take photos. Record yourself walking into the aisle. If you’re not drawn to your packaging, go back to the drawing board. Diana added that it’s important to mimic the entire shopper journey. How do you first spot a product at 10 feet away, then what does it look like when you get closer, and finally, how does it appear in your hand? Every distance must do a different job.

Make your packaging work for you. John mentioned how at Whole Foods Market, shelf markers aren’t permitted, so a brand’s packaging is its only billboard. If the contrast is off, if the type is hard to read, if nothing pops, the eye moves on.

On the front - less is more. There’s a tendency for brands to put everything on the front of their packaging, including certifications, awards, and key ingredients. People don’t have time to read that when shopping, especially when a new product catches their eye. Diana said that when a package tries to say everything, the consumer backs off. Ashley’s tip was to pick the three attributes your target customer cares most about and let those carry the front.

On the back – info is queen. It’s time to close the deal. This is where a consumer is when they are interested. They read the ingredients and look to learn more. For example, Ashley puts B.T.R. Nation’s founding story on the back. She created the brand as a tribute to both her parents, who passed away from rare forms of cancer. Insider’s Tip: Using a QR code can save space and allow you to share more information with potential customers.

Consistency matters, but so does the marketing channel. Packaging, shelf talkers, end caps, social media, email, demos each do something different in a shopper’s journey, and the brands that understand that are the ones building real velocity. Here’s how Diana explains it:

·      The packaging gets you noticed and picked up.

·      A shelf talker is a point-of-decision tool that helps convince shoppers toward purchase.

·      An end cap (a product display) tells a bigger story and drives discovery.

·      Social, email, and community are where your mission and origin live.

While the messaging and goals might be different, a shopper who sees a brand across all those different touchpoints should feel like they’re encountering the same brand every time.

Activate your community. Ashley uses the B.T.R. Nation community (over 200K) to purchase the product in retail stores. That kind of pre-built support is what drives velocity from day one.

Treat demos as market research. First schedule demos early (at Whole Foods, that requires two weeks’ notice). Ashley’s advice was to go into every demo with one question for every customer: What brought you over to try this? That ongoing data collection serves as input for future packaging decisions, promo priorities, and messaging refinements, without the expense of formal research.

Bottom Line: Retail is not just a distribution channel. It’s a communication channel, one that requires intentional strategy, thoughtful design, and a plan that’s ready before you ever hit the shelf. It continues long after the product is on the shelf – the true test isn’t getting in retail, it’s staying on shelves.