Kate Holland, MSc Design Innovation (Food), Bord Bia –Irish Food Board
Radical change is set to continue within the food and retail industry, attributable to mounting and evolving shopper expectations and advancing technology. IGD’s 2019 Global Retail Trends discuss how evolving consumer behaviours and technology will shape the global retail market over the coming year and thereafter.
Despite January and February having come to a close, health and wellness resolutions remain strong on consumer agenda. IGD’s retail trend ‘Help Me Be Healthy’, is evident online and in-store as brands and retailers display increased efforts to communicate their contribution to project healthy through product nutrition, product/ingredient swap ideas and healthy recipes to name a few. Notably, younger consumers are increasingly seeking information online about brands and products before purchase shifting the culture from ‘try and test’ to ‘recommended and reviewed’.
IGD predict consumers will be more health conscious, aspiring to eat and live well presenting opportunities for retailers to support shoppers in looking and feeling good. IGD foresee more and more retailers providing education, information and reward systems for shoppers who choose to live healthier lives. For consumer engagement, such health promoting initiatives will need to be executed with ease and simplicity and offer clear benefits to the consumer. Retailers will use nudge behaviour and will require minimal effort from consumers.
Bord Bia’s consumer lifestyle trend ‘Fuller Lives’ captures the experience hungry and convenience seeking consumer encapsulating the ‘YOLO’ generation. Capturing this consumer in a statement, Bord Bia define their objectives as “I want to use my time to be as productive and sociable as possible, flowing from one thing to the next – and helped, not hindered by tech…”. Food and drink producers should consider the restructuring of occasions to suit these consumers who aspire to maximise their days and nights including revolutionising manufacturing and delivery.
With the Health and Wellness industry going from strength to strength, the Protein trend remains fundamental to consumers. New Nutrition Business outline Protein as one of its key trends for 2019 expressing the macronutrient as “A natural health halo”. NNB state consumer motivations for protein include:
- Supportive of sports performance
- Supports weight wellness
- Reduces carbohydrate intake
- Builds and preserves lean muscle
As noted in a previous FoodAlert, New Nutrition Business express “Naturally Functional” as the King of Trends and a key driver of the success of many foods. Naturally Functional suggests consumers desire foods which they perceive to offer an intrinsic benefit. In their 2019 key trends report, NNB report what consumers want most from the Protein trend to be 1) a natural source and 2) convenient.
Considering the aforementioned trends “Help me to be healthy” and “Fuller Lives”, it is no surprise that convenience is core of consumer priorities. This is particularly the case for younger GenZ and Millennial consumers growing up in a world increasingly digitally connected. As our lives become increasingly connected consumer behaviour becomes more urgent, where instantaneous solutions are considered standard. NNB report “Millennials are looking for solutions that provide produce and nutrition without all the work”, this demographic is also reported to spend the largest percentage of their food budgets in categories predominately made up of ready-to-eat foods.
Mintel’s 2019 Global Food & Drink Trend ‘Elevated Convenience’ notes convenience food and drink will need to match premium expectations of consumers in the on-demand age. The term ‘convenience’ has evolved amongst current consumers to go beyond ‘fast’ as a new generation of modern convenience foods are developed in response to rising global health concerns and health and wellness aspirations. The preferences of today’s consumers for convenience include meeting natural, nutrition and customisable food and drink options that exist in sync with and contribute to the increasingly busy lives of today’s society.
Mintel recommendations for ‘Elevated Convenience’ NPD to consider:
- Help consumers save time without any sacrifices
- Automation sets new expectations for retail
- Any category and occasion can be upgraded
Health and wellness remains focal for shoppers, government bodies and retailers. Online and in-store activity which provides consumers with guidance and inspiration for healthier choices will remain popular. The offering of specialist ranges and services as well as increased efforts to address global obesity and unhealthy diets will also be popular including SuperValu’s proposal to include Vegan and Vegetarian zones in store and Lidl’s commitment to significantly reduce sugar and salt in own brand products by 2020. Consumers are increasing striving for a less for more or no pain all gain mentality driven by experience and aesthetics in the age of urgency.