Trendspotting: Food Brands Want to Bring Back Impulse Buying

NewsWire: 5/18/21

• As in-person impulse buying declines, food marketers are on a mission to get shoppers to keep up their habits online. Increased advertising and minimum free shipping requirements are among the tactics that are becoming more popular. (Wired)
• NH: Since the pandemic began, more Americans have switched from in-person to online grocery shopping. That means fewer people are perusing the gum, candy, and snacks by the register. According to Euromonitor, North American sales of gum and mints fell -14% and -15% by volume in 2020, respectively, compared to the year before.

• This might not seem like a big deal. But impulse buying is crucial to the snack industry’s bottom line. The same purchases are much less likely to happen online. While certain aspects of the online buying process, like free shipping minimums, encourage impulse buys, people generally don’t want their candy bars and mints delivered two days later. They want them now.
• What are the Hersheys and the Mars Wrigleys of the world to do? Marketers are ramping up their digital advertising on grocers’ websites and on delivery services like Instacart. They’re creating customized alerts suggesting that shoppers add a favorite snack or two to their deliveries before hitting order. They’re also trying to make in-store shopping more enticing. Mars Wrigley even piloted a robot at a ShopRite in New York that sang, danced, and offered people gum and Skittles while they shopped.
• Not all snacks are created equal. According to research company Numerator, sales of sugary snacks rose +8% in 2020. Think ice cream and Oreos. Multi-serving portions of savory snacks, like family-sized bags of potato chips, are selling well too. What’s suffering are single-serving items, which deliver the highest profit margins. Americans are still chowing down on chips and cookies, but food brands are hoping they can bring back their appetite for smaller doses