Circana Growth Insights

Complete Wallet’s Total Omni Shopper View

The merger of IRI and NPD ― now Circana ― brings together data and expertise from 20 industries, including CPG, general merchandise, and foodservice. These combined resources across 30 shopping channels, hundreds of retailers, and more than 1,200 categories enable Complete Wallet™, the most complete view of what, where, how, and when consumers buy. Patty Altman and Michelle Bennett, executive vice presidents of Consumer and Shopper Insights at Circana, describe the opportunities Complete Wallet unlocks.  

Highlights:  

• Timely information — fueled by receipt panel data, consumer surveys, and myriad other data sets and technologies — identifies consumer lifestyle shifts as they happen in real time.
• Brands, retailers, and other industry players are able to expand their perspective on the shopper to identify new opportunities for growth.
• This more complete view also identifies consumer purchasing priorities across all categories as well as by shopper type, from SNAP recipients to generational cohorts.  

 

 

CPG Retail’s Role in Lifting Consumer Confidence

CPG retail is feeling the impact of tumbling consumer confidence. Ongoing inflation and anticipation of a recession have consumers pulling back on stock-up trips and instead shifting to quick trips and sticking to their shopping lists. In this Fresh Pulse episode, Jonna Parker, principal, Fresh Center of Excellence at Circana and Anne-Marie Roerink, president of 210 Analytics, share proven strategies that inspire shoppers and drive loyalty.

• 40% of shoppers report combatting inflation by stretching meals and minimizing waste. Produce benefits from quick trips, as consumers buy only what they need and consume what they have. With produce considered essential, retailers should hone their EDLP strategies.
• Retailers don’t have to “own” the entire meal. Fresh items can complement both convenience items or meal components sourced from foodservice.
• With promotions still down compared to pre-pandemic, retailers should leverage their digital assets, including coupons, social media and QR codes, to make recommendations for shoppers.

Consumer Insights from Mobility and Transportation

Why, where, and when people drive changed dramatically during the pandemic. Many of those shifts are proving sticky — with big implications for the CPG and retail industries. In this podcast, Circana’s Nathan Shipley shares insights on the impacts these changes are having on the auto aftermarket. He also explores how remote work and consumer mobility trends are affecting CPG consumption and how shifts in local and distance travel could change retail.  

Highlights:  

• Working from home has meant more local trips and more demand for on-the-go products from untethered workers who are combining business with leisure travel.  
• Airline disruptions have driven more people to drive for travel, as has the pandemic boom in RV purchases.   
• New car sales are coming back but are tempered by high interest rates. Many Americans are continuing to invest in their current vehicles to defer the purchase of a new car.  

Leveraging the Complete View of the Beauty Market

Insights that are anything but skin deep. Circana’s Larissa Jensen, vice president and beauty industry advisor, describes the power of Circana’s Complete Beauty™ capabilities,  including a full view of mass and prestige sales and consumer behavior across skincare, makeup, hair and fragrance.

Highlights:  

• A majority of beauty sales occur in brick-and-mortar stores, given the experiential nature of products like color cosmetics and fragrance. But the technical side of beauty, including key ingredients and promised performance, fare well online.  
• Learn how beauty products are part of consumers’ shifting attitudes toward wellness.  
• Consumers are turning to beauty to satisfy their treat mindset. Learn which categories are answering the call.  

Observations and Insights Across the Retail Landscape

Circana’s Don Unser, president of thought leadership and Marshal Cohen, chief industry advisor for the retail industry, share observations and insights into the nearly $3 trillion U.S. retail landscape.  Tapping into Circana’s Complete Store™ measurement of online and offline sales across CPG, general merchandise and foodservice, retailers, manufacturers and operators will learn how consumer behaviors are impacting shopping today, and how they can plan for what comes next.   

Highlights:  

Consumers view of grocery shopping is an exercise of “extreme essentials,” indicating they are grudgingly paying higher prices for fast-moving consumer goods. Consumers’ approach to general merchandise, however, is with a “discrete discretionary” mindset, where they need to replenish items that are nearing the end of their lifecycle, such as for well-worn activewear.  

Retailers and manufacturers have been focused on share growth, but by the end of 2023 and into 2024, expect a shift in outlook to be about margin growth. The pie, folks, isn’t getting any bigger.  

Learn the impact that economic indicators such as jobs, wages, online shopping, even work-from-home is having on consumer spending, particularly for “potent purchases” and “impact purchases.”  

Food and Beverage Consumer Trends — Frugal Fatigue

As consumers wrestle with inflation and resume busy lifestyles, it’s critical to stay ahead of their shifting consumption trends. Circana now provides the most complete view of the $1.5 trillion CPG retail and foodservice landscape in the U.S. — from supply chain through consumption — so you can unlock business growth. Circana’s Joan Driggs, Vice President of Content and Thought Leadership and David Portalatin, Senior Vice President and Industry Advisor, Food and Foodservice, highlight the clarity this new capability uncovers.

Highlights:

• Identify the daypart that reverted to pre-pandemic volume.
• Understand how the notion of home centricity started before the pandemic but accelerated between 2020 and 2021.
• Explore the ways the industry’s affordability can uniquely support consumers experiencing frugal fatigue and seeking to reward themselves or boost their mental and emotional well-being.

Fresh Pulse: Strategies Amid Declining Volume

Volume is down more than 4% across the store in February, but a little less so in fresh departments. Despite the dim outlook, Jonna Parker, principal of Circana’s Fresh Center of Excellence, and Anne-Marie Roerink, president of 210 Analytics, highlight some bright spots in fresh and share some creative promo strategies they’ve seen, as well as some valuable insights on pricing.  

Key takeaways:  

• Fresh – and especially the meat department – is a three-legged stool for 2023: affordability, permissibility, and favorability.
• As cash-strapped and frustrated shoppers search for deals, consider “stacking promos” or shelf tags that remind shoppers how much prices have dropped for certain products.
• Be careful with pricing strategies, however. Use data to understand price sensitivity and learn which tactics will “move the needle.”  

The Future of Snacking

Snacking is a consumer barometer for mood, behavior or even how busy we are. While snacking helped us cope or stay entertained during the pandemic, now it reflects our return to active lifestyles. Darren Seifer, food and beverage industry analyst, shares insights on snacking trends, how different generations approach snacking and opportunities for snacking success.

Key takeaways:

• We snack differently depending on age. The youngest consumers’ snacking is controlled by their parents, who are looking for healthy options to tide kids over to the next meal.
• It’s not teens who are the heaviest snackers. It’s consumers in their 40s, but currently, those Gen Xers aren’t the biggest populations, so they’re not driving much growth.
• Immunity is less important now than during the pandemic, but digestive and calming attributes are still sought.

Fresh Pulse: Addressing the Challenges of 2023

Retailers and their CPG partners need to pull out all the stops in 2023 to acknowledge and support shoppers as they work to balance health, time and budgets. Promotional creativity and operational excellence should be foundational in building trust with shoppers. Jonna Parker, principal of IRI’s Fresh Center of Excellence, and IRI partner Anne-Marie Roerink, president of 210 Analytics, offer up strategies for winning in grocery in 2023 and beyond. 

Key takeaways:  

• Jonna Parker warns that “when you stand for everything, you stand for nothing” in today’s competitive grocery landscape.  
• Consumers are looking for solution support and education from grocers.
• With ongoing labor shortages and younger shoppers looking for new ways of shopping, the grocery industry is at a pivotal moment of change. 

Consumer Demand Revealed in Book Sales

According to Kristen McLean, Executive Director, Industry Analyst, NPD Books & Entertainment, books are “the idea market.” And given her view across 800 million units and 6,000 subject categories, she is capturing ideas at the intersections of discovery, consumption and purchasing. For the CPG and Gen Merch industries, the insights from book sales are a barometer for demand, but also a catalyst for innovation.  

 

Key takeaways:

• The TikTok generation, those aged 35 and younger, have outsized influence, recommending not only what we read, but how we spend our time and what we consume.
• Books provide insight into CPG consumption trends. Cookbooks focused on convenience and easy-prep meals are in, but there are also increasing sales of titles for baby food.
• Even though younger consumers are fans of sustainability and thrift, they also have room for premium and aspire to luxury. Opportunities – think licensing!