Grocerant Meal Components Growing Digitally Globally

Restaurants, C-Stores, Furniture Stores, Liquor Stores, and Grocery Stores are all expanding into the grocerant niche filled with Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food.  The grocerant niche continues to fuel innovation within the retail foodservice sector around the world as regular readers of this blog know from Sweden, Malaysia, Australia, Germany , United States to name but a few.

According to a new study, “Feeding the Global Consumer,” from AlixPartners, a global business-advisory firm meals and meal components that  are targeted, sold or delivered for “On-the-go”, Dining, Delivery,  leveraging new Technology are “another trend shining through in the survey is consumers’ growing interest, around the world, in dining while “on the go.”

Here are some of the facts:

1.       23 percent of those surveyed said they plan to increase their frequency of carryout meals over the coming 12 months,

2.       52 percent of the Chinese saying that,

3.       39 percent of the Brazilians,

4.       26 percent of the Germans

5.       The U.S., possibly the most saturated place in the world for drive thru’s and in-car multitasking, came in at 15 percent.

6.       Even more telling was that respondents internationally said that on average they expect that basically one of every four meals (23 percent) of any kind they eat in the coming 12 months to be either carryout from a restaurant or some other form of a “mobile meal,” such as food from convenience stores or grocery stores.

When the study turned to technology the results were just as interesting.  Here is what they found when asked to identify the top-three most-important technologies a restaurant today can have:

1.        53 percent of respondents globally chose online ordering, the No. 1 vote-getter of the options offered.

2.       Digital menus (49 percent) were second and digital loyalty programs

3.       (48 percent) third, with mobile payments

4.       (44 percent) and mobile meal-ordering

5.       (42 percent) rounding out the top five.

6.       Among US respondents, the leader was digital loyalty programs, at 56 percent, followed by online ordering (53 percent) and digital menus (52 percent).  

Building meal component sales today requires the understanding that it take an integrated, branded, customer meal building focus that begin online.  When the AlixPartners study asked how effective online discount services are at influencing their dining-out decisions, 20 percent said such services are “extremely” influential and 49 percent said “somewhat” influential. In addition, an average of 52 percent said they plan to look for more discounts in the year ahead; and notably, those in the two largest economies in the survey, the U.S .and China, came in at well above that average, at 62 percent and 71 percent, respectively. Enough said. If your footprint Digital?  Digital Meals mean fresh food sales.

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a grocerant program assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard.  For brand, or product placement assistance our Grocerant Guru® has the skill-set you are looking for.  Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869