Top Healthy Shopping behaviours

The food marketing institute in conjunction with prevention magazine recently released its 20th annual study ‘’shopping for Health’’. This shopping for health contains loads of insights for natural products retailers.

For example, since 2010 55 percent of shoppers have changed to whole wheat or whole grain bread, 37 percent of shoppers, are also buying whole grain pasta and rice.

Shoppers have changed quite a few things in their purchasing behaviours, and it shows that shoppers are now more focused on eating more healthier.

According to the food marketing institute, the data shows that an average shopper makes 2.2 shopping trips per week. 72 percent of shoppers do their shopping at a grocery store.

23 percent of shoppers reports visiting a natural/organic store. That is almost 1 in every 4 shoppers! Natural and organic foods have big growth opportunities and we are no longer a hidden niche in the marketplace.

The main reason shoppers give for not buying healthy foods is because of the costs.

31 percent of shoppers said that cost was a factor, 33 percent of shoppers said that it was a minor factor. But the cost was not a problem for 31 percent of shoppers. This shows very little change over the last 5 years.

It is quite surprising to see these statistics that recent economic challenges have not had more of an impact on this. Only 6 percent of these shoppers that a shop not stocking healthy foods was a big reason for not eating healthy. That is quite a bit of penetration of healthy products into the market.

Here are a few ways for you to boost sales in your store:

  • With so many shoppers focused on health, focus your message in your store overall on health and wellness.
  • Improving heart health is a concern for 75 percent of these shoppers. Keep your whole store in mind when marketing heart health to shoppers. How many products, with an improved structure, claims about cardiovascular health on your shelves?
  • Whole grain, more fibre, multigrain, low fat and low sodium are purchased by 75 percent of male shoppers. Two-thirds of men think they are overweight. Reaching male shoppers is a great idea.
  • Parents often focus on health foods when shopping for their families. Foods that are convenient and quick preparation time. Making your store mom-friendly will defiantly pay off and be worth it.

Are you surprised by this shopping behaviour? Share your thoughts with us.