Ok, Google.
What’s Fashionable to Eat This Year?
The previous year was a year of alternatives to meat, low-carbohydrate food, and vegan products. 2020 was officially declared the year of vegans. The most popular tag #vegan was published 87.8 million times on Instagram, and sales of vegan products in the world are at their peak. For example, in America, the total revenue from this business in 2019 exceeded fast-food sales by 10 times.
We decided to investigate what will be popular among healthy food lovers in 2020. We started our research in terms of total quarantine, and, of course, did not miss the opportunity to find out how the pandemic situation affected the average European citizen food basket.
38% of men and 62% of women took part in our research. Among the respondents there were students, Scheduling employees, mystery shoppers, housewives, pensioners, self-employed people, and hired workers. As you can see, they are just ordinary people like you and us — of different ages, with dissimilar interests and activities.
What is undoubtedly encouraging, most respondents are interested in their health and are familiar with the topic of healthy food:
- 96% of respondents are interested in a healthy lifestyle;
- 70% didn’t know that this year was declared Vegan year, but
- 85% understand the difference between healthy eating and vegetarianism.
In order to make our research more informative and in line with today’s reality, we turned to the most famous trend expert of all time — Google. Then we asked respondents if they knew about the most popular food products in 2020. The answers were distributed as follows:
25% – know about Sweet potato trend;
22% – heard the meaning of Kombucha;
21% – familiar with Asian food, Mocktails;
20% – haven’t heard of any trends;
12% – are aware of everything.
Tell Me What You Eat and I Will Tell You What You Are
You must have heard an old French proverb: “You are what you eat.” To learn about eating habits, our respondents were asked questions that showed how attentive they were to what they consumed. We highlighted the main points.
Negative:
69% can occasionally stop when they’re full.
Positive:
62% of respondents declared that they always paid attention to the texture and taste of food.
Not enough:
15% – try to avoid distracting things during their meals.
Since the year is declared vegetarian, the main trend of a healthy diet in 2020 will be vegetable proteins in particular and a completely vegetable diet in general. In addition to the vegan diet, a Keto diet, an Asian diet, and a salt-free diet were also mentioned in a few cases.
The scientists say that the vegan diet will be the most popular in the coming year, which will have a positive impact on the environment. The experts include fruits, beans, vegetables, seeds, and nuts as well as whole grains as useful plant products.
Our respondents indicated that they preferred the following product groups in 2020:
73% – fruits, vegetables, seafood, meat, and frozen fish.
20% – bread, pastries, cereals, pasta, coffee.
7% – alcohol and tobacco products, non-food products.
The data is encouraging, as people spend most of their budget on healthy food, and less on the products that are harmful to health and the environment.
Another important question of our study was to find out how the behavioral patterns of Europeans have changed during the crisis, and more specifically how they preferred to shop. And that’s the data we’ve got:
70% of respondents continue to visit supermarkets.
30% – purchase all goods online.
We dare to assume that some changes in consumer habits and behavior caused by the crisis may subsequently become permanent. While the majority of our respondents did not increase their spendings on shopping during the crisis (74%), they did experience a shortage of food on supermarket shelves (57%). Milk, almond milk, and pasta were mentioned as the most scarce products.
Marketing Research on Consumer Behaviour During the Crisis
Each story is unique, and there may be situations where it would be better to postpone or stop the research, but there are always important lessons to be learned from these cases. The research during a crisis helps to understand what needs to be done now and in the future, as some changes in consumer behavior will become permanent habits.
Understanding how innovation can be applied to nutrition, retail, food delivery, and digital solutions is more important today than ever. It is also crucial to understand what particularly is valuable for the consumers right now and to consider the fact that during the crisis they are more opened to innovation as they face forced changes in their habits.
According to Google Trends, searches for “product delivery service next to me” have increased by 200% worldwide. As consumers begin to explore new shopping opportunities on a daily basis, they are showing increasing interest in finding store recommendations and online delivery services.
Our Findings in 2020 Food Trends
- 2020 is a year of new eating habits, which leads to global changes. People continue to replace meat with other products. The world-famous companies (e.g. Greggs, KFC, Wagamama, Subway, and Pizza Hut) are now actively introducing vegan menus. Even at the Golden Globe ceremony, the guests have suggested a completely vegan menu for the first time in history.
- An interest in healthy food is growing. People are paying more and more attention to what they eat. In the United States and Europe, even non-vegetarians tend to eat more fruits and vegetables following nutritionists advice.
- Consumers shop online more often. Despite the fact that according to our survey only 30% of respondents prefer to shop online, this trend is rapidly gaining popularity. Increasingly, people are shopping from their smartphones. Simplified payment methods implemented by Google, Samsung, and Apple have given mobile commerce a new boost. Statista analysts predict that by 2020 m-commerce will overtake e-commerce, and the revenues in this segment will reach $189 billion.
If you want to keep up with the times, follow the latest trends in your field. Which ones — google knows. In our turn, we will help you to check the readiness of your service for the changes. The Mystery Shopper program provides physical visits to supermarkets, restaurants, stores, and other locations to see how successfully they follow this trend and what beneficial products they can offer to potential customers.
Total quarantine has hit absolutely all areas of business, including the food industry. New solutions need to be introduced to stay afloat in this situation. We have already launched a new brand that solves many of the problems connected with the use of digital channels. If you want to make sure your digital solutions are effective, welcome to 4testers.
Be progressive! Eat healthy food! Stay tuned for the latest trends with us!
