Last year Hellmann’s in Brazil came up with a novel way to encourage consumers to use their mayonnaise for more than just sandwiches. The brand teamed up with supermarket chain St Marche to install special software in 100 of its cash registers. When Hellmann’s is scanned, the system matches the rest of the basket to a recipe, then prints it directly on the receipt at checkout. In the first month of the three-month experiment, sales reportedly increased by 44%.
Now, for their new campaign, shopping carts at Pão de Açúcar in São Paulo are mounted with NFC-enabled touchscreen devices. As consumers move through aisles, the touchscreen detects nearby shelf zones and suggests a relevant recipe that uses Hellmann’s. If a recipe is liked, customers can interact with the display to locate ingredients in-store, or share the recipe with friends via email. The activation reportedly involved 45,000 customers, and sales rose by almost 70%.
Two in-store recipe engines, two different moments
The first mechanic works at the end of the trip. It uses the checkout scan as the trigger, then turns the receipt into a personalized cooking prompt based on what you already bought. The second mechanic works during the trip. It uses aisle-level detection to suggest ideas while shoppers are still deciding what to put in the basket, then helps them navigate to the ingredients needed to complete the recipe.
In FMCG shopper marketing, the strongest in-store activations change behavior at the exact point where choices are made.
Why it lands
Both ideas attack the same barrier. People know mayonnaise, but they default to a narrow usage script. These executions widen the script with immediate utility, not persuasion. They do not ask shoppers to “remember later.” They hand them a meal idea in the moment, using their own basket and their current aisle as the context.
Extractable takeaway: If you want to grow usage occasions, embed the suggestion inside an existing retail behavior. The basket scan, the aisle browse, the store navigation. Then deliver a next-best action that is specific, contextual, and instantly doable.
What to steal for your own retail activations
- Anchor to a hard trigger. Checkout and aisle location are reliable moments. Build the experience around signals that already exist.
- Make relevance visible. Recipes work because the shopper can see why this suggestion fits. It uses what they are holding, or what is right in front of them.
- Keep the interaction short. In-store attention is scarce. One clear suggestion beats ten options and a browsing experience.
- Close the loop with navigation. A recipe is only valuable if the shopper can find the missing ingredients quickly.
- Design for shareable utility. Email sharing is not a gimmick here. It turns a private meal problem into a social handoff.
A few fast answers before you act
What is the difference between Recipe Receipt and Recipe Cart?
Recipe Receipt triggers at checkout and prints a recipe based on the basket. Recipe Cart triggers in-aisle and suggests recipes based on where the shopper is, while helping locate ingredients in-store.
Why does this work better than a normal coupon or promotion?
Because it delivers practical utility tied to the shopper’s context. It expands how people use the product by giving a specific meal idea, not just a price incentive.
What data does a concept like this actually need?
Only basket contents at checkout, or aisle location for the cart experience, plus a curated recipe database that can match ingredients to suggestions.
What is the biggest execution risk?
Low relevance. If the suggested recipes feel generic or mismatched to what shoppers are buying and seeing, the experience becomes noise and loses trust fast.