Last month, FMI and Label Insight released the research report, “Transparency Trends: Omnichannel Grocery Shopping from the Consumer Perspective.” The 2020 research touts the rationale for how 81% of shoppers say transparency is important or extremely important to them both online and in-store. The analysis offers the leading considerations among consumers for how they define transparency when grocery shopping.
The “Transparency Trends: Omnichannel Grocery Shopping from the Consumer Perspective” Report is based on data collected between March 5 – March 18, 2020 from 1,000 U.S, omnichannel grocery shoppers who shopped online for groceries in the previous month — in addition to shopping in-store. The report is a follow up to “The Transparency Imperative: Product Labeling from the Consumer Perspective” study conducted in 2018 which examined the growing importance of transparency. This year’s research builds off of the 2018 study, diving deeper into shoppers’ behaviors and expectations for transparency with in-store and online shopping.
“It’s one thing to know consumers want transparency, it’s another thing to act on it. We’re seeing more and more that providing detailed product information is key to building trust and loyalty with consumers,” said Tim Whiting, VP of Marketing at Label Insight. “Moving forward, brands will need to continue to listen better to their customers, continuously update their online and in-store content to keep pace with changing consumer preferences and be an open book when it comes to their products so that they can maintain and grow market share.”
Key findings included:
• Consumers evaluate core factors that make a brand transparent. Shoppers say a brand or manufacturer is transparent if they provide a complete list of ingredients (62%), the description of ingredients is in plain English (53%), provide certifications, such as USDA organic (48%), and provide in-depth nutritional information (47%).
• Responsibility for transparency is met with distrust. Sixty-one percent of omnichannel shoppers believe manufacturers, brands or government institutions are completely responsible for providing detailed product information; however, less than one-half of shoppers completely trust product information from manufacturers and brands (41%) or from government institutions (46%).
• Consumer needs have changed and transparency needs to evolve along with them. More shoppers are sticking to a diet or health related eating program in 2020 (64%) than in 2018 (49%); and their shopping behaviors are impacted even more by food allergies, intolerances or sensitivities than two years ago with 44% indicating this in 2018, and 55% in 2020.
• Online expectations for transparency are higher than for brick-and-mortar. Forty-two percent of shoppers believe online grocery retailers should be responsible for providing detailed product information, compared to brick-and-mortar grocers (35%).
• Consumers go online to get more information. When met with a need to get more detailed product information or clarify questions, shoppers turn to the internet. Forty-seven percent of shoppers will choose to research ingredients online in the face of confusion and 89% of would be more likely to seek details on a product if it had more online information.
FMI Vice President, Industry Relations, Doug Baker commented that transparency matters for omnichannel grocery shoppers, but there are distinctions among the platforms employed by these consumers. “Pre-pandemic, online shoppers expressed a desire for expanded features that would enable search capabilities, exploration and better ways to compare products. The analysis helps food retailers prioritize how consumers want to engage with them and their brands in an authentic way.”
Label Insight drives growth for CPG brands and grocery retailers through unparalleled product transparency. As the trusted partner of over 300 retail banners, over 5500 CPG brands, and organizations including the FDA, USDA and American Heart Association, its best-in-class product attribute data and patented data science empower companies to unlock new growth opportunities both online and in store.
Label Insight covers more than 80 percent of U.S. food, pet, and personal care products, and over 99% of all consumer online searches, with a market-leading database of over 200,000 product nutrients, 400,000 product ingredients and 9 million product claims.
To get the full report, visit fmi.org.
As the food industry association, FMI works with and on behalf of the entire industry to advance a safer, healthier and more efficient consumer food supply chain. FMI brings together a wide range of members across the value chain — from retailers that sell to consumers, to producers that supply food and other products, as well as the wide variety of companies providing critical services — to amplify the collective work of the industry. Learn more at fmi.org.
