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Understanding how consumers shop for plant-based products is the first step to maximize trial and conversion.

Plant-based food and beverage products are positioned in the sweet spot for success: retailer opportunity, consumer trends and the COVID accelerator.

MORE THAN $5B

Further, they benefit retailers with their scale, growth and profitability. The market for plant-based will generate well more than $5 billion in sales this year at a 50-100% premium per equivalent unit vs. conventional products, all while achieving double-digit growth.

Clearly understanding how consumers shop – from type of trip to planning to key motivating factors and resultant behavior – is essential to meet the growing demand driven by consumer trends and retailer needs in a COVID environment.

The consumer opportunity is driven by macro trends: healthier lifestyles, environmental impact awareness and ethical concerns. All shopper age groups and demographics have interest in these areas, especially Gen Z/Millennials.

The COVID accelerator hasn’t only changed the way we live, shop and eat, as noted by Cadent retail analyst Michael Faucher. It has also resulted in a huge step change for all plant-based categories driven by health and safety.

We will explore four key elements of the shopping process: trip type, degree of planning, key motivators and walk rate.

Shopping trips, whether in-store or online, have changed dramatically. While we’ve seen the tremendous shift to online, we have also documented, through Cadent’s CPG Clarity Study, how trips have declined but baskets have grown. These larger baskets fit in perfectly with the typical trip for the plant-based food and beverage buyer.

There are four primary trip types: large stock-up (10+ items), fill-in (6-10 items), quick trip (2-5 specific items) and exclusive, one-item trips.

More than 80% of all plant-based product trips are driven by stock-up or fill-in. These are major trips that typically incorporate a total store shop, from produce to center store and everything in between. It doesn’t matter whether these shoppers are purchasing plant-based meat alternatives or dairy alternatives; these are major trips that drive big, profitable baskets.

Planning is far from routine when shopping for plant-based alternatives. Only 25% of shoppers classify a plant-based purchase as routine or something they put very little thought into. The remaining 75% are interested in and conscious of trying new brands, types or flavors, looking for lower prices or promotions, purchasing the right product for the right occasion, or keeping an eye on the healthiest products available. In the case of dairy alternatives, routine purchases comprise 33% of occasions versus 21% for meat alternatives.

Dairy is a more developed plant-based category as evidenced by the greater routine nature of the purchase. We expect meat, cheese, meals, yogurt, and ice cream/frozen dessert alternatives to be more exploratory and less routine for the near term.

The five factors that are most important to shoppers when selecting which plant-based product to purchase are noteworthy. At the top of the list, as we find for most every food/beverage product, is taste/ flavor, rated at 93% importance. Closely behind are texture (88%), product satisfies my appetite (85%), product contains simple, transparent ingredients (82%), and price (79%).

Pay close attention to “simple, transparent ingredients.” In the case of conventional milk, meat or cheese, there are generally few ingredients with the exception of added flavors. With plant-based products, ingredient lists can run up to 20 items and are far from transparent. If consumers don’t know how to pronounce an ingredient, it is doubtful they know what it means. Real and transparent ingredient lists will become increasingly important for success in the plant-based marketplace.

So, what would shoppers do if the specific plant-based product they intended to buy was not available? This is a question we have explored in many categories. The data on page 12 indicates that 65% of plant-based alternative shoppers would switch and 35% would walk without buying during their trip. We have also provided data on the type of switch, as well as the implications of walking. Of particular note, the walk rate for meat alternative buyers is much higher (at 45%) than dairy alternative buyers (at 31%). This walk can be costly both in terms of longer-term shopper loyalty and an immediate loss of high ring/high profit sales.

Don Stuart is managing partner at Cadent Consulting Group (cadentcg.com) with offices in Wilton, Conn, and Evanston, Ill. He can be reached at [email protected].

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