Consumers are more likely to increase their spending on groceries such as health supplements and baby food, and reduce it on products such as juices and breakfast cereals, according to new research into consumer behaviour.
The survey of more than 500 Irish consumers, conducted by Behaviour & Attitudes on behalf of Checkout magazine, looked at areas where people were keen to either “trade up” or “trade down” on different areas of their weekly food shop.
In categories such as fresh meat, wine and beer – where 10%, 10% and 9% of consumers respectively were willing to spend more on products – it found that a far greater proportion of shoppers were seeking to go in the opposite direction. In general, the disparity between the proportion of customers willing to spend more, and the proportion of those who were not, was vast.
The baby formula and baby foods segments were among the best performing, recording interest in up-trade of 13% and 11% respectively.
Checkout magazine editor Steve Wynne-Jones said: “This survey illustrates that when it comes to the categories in which Irish shoppers refuse to scrimp on quality, baby knows best. While there are signs that more shoppers are seeking higher priced quality options in categories such as meat, or fruit and veg, the typical Irish consumer remains very much on a value footing, seeking the best price possible in most categories.”
Behaviour & Attitudes director Martha Fanning added: “We have seen over the past couple of years a gradual improvement in consumer confidence. For a long time it felt like the mood was lifting, but there was a lack of follow through when it came to how people were behaving. Finally, we are seeing evidence of increasing spend and trading up across a much wider range of categories.
“Shoppers remain keen to extract maximum value from their food budget, but at the same time, they are clearly loosening the purse-strings on relevant categories.”
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