Grocerants Fresh Fast Flavorful vs Grocery Stores Cook & Do Dishes

Grocery stores, Conveniences stores, Restaurants, and Dollar Stores are all evolving, expanding or exploiting the undercurrents of fresh food, halo of ‘better-for-you food’, and food experiences that are customized, personalized, or create a new point of distribution according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Whole Foods is growing oyster mushrooms right in the store, Domino’s Pizza has voice ordering via Amazon’s Alex.  Even Kroger is testing Scan, Bag and Go technology. Fresh food, fast service with digital marketing, with a halo of ‘healthy’ offerings will drive customer migration from legacy grocery stores to food retailers that evolve in every retail sector. Here are a list of findings from two different studies that were conducted recently: 

1. 88% of those we surveyed desire more healthy offers.

2. 52% of shoppers say they always read the labels.

3. A surprising 20% strictly follow special diets like gluten-free, Paleo or vegetarian.

4. Shoppers are looking for keywords on the labels like all-natural, heart-healthy, sugar-free, low-sodium, low-fat, or clean.

5. 60% would love digital scanning for nutritional information.

A. They want you to reward their loyalty with exclusive offers. And their desire for more personalization has increased over the previous year. If they are your loyal customers, they feel you should truly know them.

B. For many shoppers, true personalization and convenience would equate with one click-option to select all the available digital coupons.

C. They want stores to provide new offers on a regular basis.

D. Shoppers prefer stores to provide information in a way they want it, whether that is by mobile or online/offline.

E. 32% of shoppers want bundled offers that naturally go together. Shopper data can provide insights into items that are frequently purchased together.

F. 86% of shoppers want stores to highlight the coupons and deals for them.

G. Many shoppers enjoy the convenience of digital coupons so that they don’t lose them and find it easier to track them in a digital wallet. But 43% report they forget to redeem their digital coupons. Geo-location technology has the potential to identify shoppers on their shopping journeys so timely reminders can be sent.

Fresh products sit alongside convenience and price as top desires of today’s shoppers. Beating out assortment, cleanliness and high-quality products, freshness is now in the top three most important characteristics for a grocery store today.

H.77% of our respondents said they typically go no further than 5 miles to get their shopping done. These trips are not fill-in trips but stock-up trips. And while they’re out, they visit on average two stores to get everything they need — choosing to shop at supermarkets and mass merchandisers.

I. 45% know what they are going to buy before they go to the store. 89% create shopping lists and 62% purposely look at store circulars and pair offers with digital coupons. In fact, 79% use the physical or online store circulars on a regular basis.

Evolving what type of food you sell and how you sell it is evolving with consumers.  Does your retail brand look more like yesterday than tomorrow?

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869