PLAY Market Research (PMR) has released it’s top three trends in food and beverage for 2018, for retailers and suppliers to take note of.
- Convenience
Thankfully for convenience stores, convenience is number one!
PMR writer Sarah Kneebone wrote: “Shopping must fit into consumers’ busy lifestyles, as people make smaller but more frequent trips to stores.”
“In-store, shoppers appreciate an elevated experience with convenient solutions such as recipe ideas and ingredient combinations to help them easily build healthily meals up from scratch,” she wrote.
“Food and drink products must be conveniently packaged and marketed in order to tick those boxes for consumers.”
2. Health
Health is definitely the trend that never seems to end. Australian shoppers are always looking for ways to balance their busy lifestyles with healthier meal options.
Ms Kneebone wrote: “Food is not only fuel but it’s also now seen as medicine. However, this doesn’t mean shoppers don’t want to indulge every now and again to balance their fast-paced lives.”
“Consumers are looking for retailers with a greater assortment of fresh, convenient and healthy food,” she wrote.
3. Personal and meaningful
Quoting The Conversation, PMR noted: “Food is becoming less a commodity and more a specialised, individual choice”.
With these three points in mind, suppliers and retailers should take note of the current trends and work to create food products that meet these trends and experiences.