While brands and retailers settle on product innovation, marketing and placement strategies during this tumultuous time of inflationary pressures and supply chain woes, consumers’ interest in trying grocery products that are new to them remains strong, according to a new report by Advantage Sales.
More than 60% of the 1,056 consumers surveyed by Advantage Sales in early February said they purchased at least one food or nonfood grocery item for the first time in the past three months — and nearly 90% of those shoppers said they’d repurchase their latest product discovery.
“Rising grocery prices and evolving shopping habits may be impacting what grocery shoppers buy and where they buy it, but they continue to look for and take a chance on products they’ve never tried before,” said Kimberly Senter, executive vice president, analytics, insights and intelligence for Advantage Sales. “And, as our survey shows, they become repeat buyers of those products.”
Among the survey’s other findings:
- Nearly half of those who purchased a grocery product for the first time in the past three months discovered it while shopping or picking up an online order at a store.
- Four in 10 shoppers who discovered their most recent first-time product while at a store found it while browsing the aisles. Three in 10 discovered the product next to an item they usually buy.
- Regardless of where they discovered the product — in a store, online or elsewhere — more than 70% purchased it in a physical store.
- The No. 1 reason a newly tried grocery product is not repurchased is taste.