Convenience is King as ‘Want it Now’ Consumers Spend Less Time in Store

Busy consumers are forcing brands and retailers to develop new style products and services to keep up with their constant on the go lifestyles.

Seven in ten shoppers say convenience is more important than five years ago when it comes to shopping and almost one in five demand same day delivery when ordering online, reveals a report from leading brand, packaging and innovation specialist Sun Branding Solutions.

This means a change not only to the way we shop, but also how we eat as we turn to “Food to Go”.  Supermarkets are now offering ready to eat food, high street bakeries present more than just sandwiches and pasties, and companies respond to a soaring demand for ready prepared recipe boxes and home deliveries from favourite restaurant chains.

A staggering 95% of the population is buying ‘hot food to go’ on average four times a week spending £508 a year, a total of £763.4m with the growth coming from quality and healthy ranges.

This new way of shopping for food is being driven by young adults, who were born in the 90s. Only 27% of this Generation Z group visit a store five times a week compared with 46% of the over 75s, claims the white paper report “Buying for Convenience” from Sun Branding Solutions.

Snacking, dubbed the fourth meal of the day, is more popular than ever though at the same time there is a demand for the other three main meals of the day, it’s how we eat them that are different. According to Kantar Worldpanel breakfasts have seen a rise of 7.9% though rather than sit at the table we are eating bars and drinking cereal products on the go.

The trend is not just among the younger generation, with four in five snacking at least once a day, but is growing among older consumers too, with 62% of the over 55s also snacking once a day.

Convenience shopping is now growing faster than grocery purchases and is expected to be worth £47.1 billion by 2022.

In Sun Branding Solutions’ whitepaper Gillian Garside-Wight, Packaging Technology Director at Sun Branding Solutions, says: “There’s a huge opportunity for brands and retailers to tap into the growing demand for quality, service, innovation and value, when and how consumers want it.”

Featuring opinion from a wide range of retailers as well its own experts, this whitepaper provides interesting insight into how forward-thinking international retailers and brand owners are responding to this growing sector as well as looking at buying, eating and cooking habits.

It highlights nine key trends around changes in consumer behaviour and provide recommendations on how to cope with not too distant future demands from ‘want it now’ consumers who are also insisting on more recycling, less waste, and better quality and healthier products.

“As competition across both food and non-food continues to be fierce, brands that innovate in terms of both product, tech and experience are sure to be the winners,” concludes Gillian.

To download the latest white paper visit here.

Source: Sun Branding Solutions

  Buying For Convenience, Food, Food to Go, Generation Z, Marketing, On the go, Packaging, Report, Research, Retail, Study, Sun Branding Solutions