Food Trends for 2014

Supermarket Guru Phil Lempert recently released his list of food industry predictions for 2014. We were intrigued by three important digital trends that Lempert says will have an impact on consumer goods brands next year.

Packaging Becomes Digitized: 2014 will bring about more of a demand from consumers for information about their foods. Since packaging is limited in size, Lempert predicts that there will be many more mobile apps created that will tell you where the product came from, who made it and customer ratings and reviews. Using an app, consumers will be able to learn more about a particular product simply by scanning the product’s label with their mobile device.

Click to Buy: Millenials – or those born between 1983 and the early 2000s – have completely integrated social media to the point that it has overflowed into their day to day lives. Naturally, planning meals and shopping for food have become a shared experience on social media. In fact, the majority (57%) of content on the social media site Pinterest is food related. Not surprisingly, 33% of Pinterest users say they have purchased food or cooking items after seeing them on the site.

Click to Cook: Since eCommerce sites like Amazon.com now offer same day grocery delivery, Lempert says that the next evolution will be impulse “click to buy” for consumers who see a recipe they like on social media platforms. Additionally, as more consumers find themselves connected via their mobile phones all day every day, the old fashioned shopping list will move from paper to digital – with improvements such as the ability to select a recipe, order ingredients, and check-out directly from a mobile device. Lempert says to watch for new sites to pop up such as ReadySetEat.com that will allow users to find recipes as well as nearby (or possibly online) deals on the ingredients. He also predicts that more and more grocery retailers will install drive-through windows to quickly pick up grocery items that customers have purchased online.

Right now is a good time for brand owners to take stock of their digital strategy.The Clavis eBook 3 Tips to Improve Online Retail Channel Conversion discusses some of the ways brand owners can start to manage their online portfolio, placement and integrity in order to take advantage of the growth that these exciting digital trends promise.

Source: http://goo.gl/v1KzuA