hi everyone i'm anna marie with 210 analytics a market research firm out of san antonio texas today it's my distinct pleasure to talk a little bit about the trends and technology that are happening in food retailing now initially when we started planning this session we had thought about the global marketplace and about all food and beverages but very quickly we realized that the idea of technology in food and beverage is entirely too big and too ambitious to look across all food and retail across the entire globe so we decided to narrow down the topic a little bit and to grab fresh produce as our lens at which we're going to look at how technology is enabling growth trends now not to worry this is not going to be a presentation about the performance of fresh produce or exactly what technology has done just in fresh produce but it helps to be able to narrow down the marketplace to the united states and to look at food and beverage through the lens of one particular area in which technology has not yet made the kind of inroads that we see in some of the beverage and food items that are packaged in the center store so today we're going to look at the opportunities and the problems that arise from technology through the lens of the trends that are happening in retail so we first of all determined the different areas that are driving growth across categories and i'll go through some of these and as you'll see some are highlighted in green and others are just in white in addition to having to narrow down from global to the u.s and all food and beverage to look at it through the lens of one particular category as an example we also had to narrow down the content a little bit to some of the areas we believe is really the prime area where technology and trends are happening but our first big trend then that was definitely enhanced by what happened with the pandemic is healthy living what we mean by that is the increased influence of food and beverage related decisions through the lens of how good is it for me is it for my family and a bigger focus on the idea of nutrition of course we saw a big increase in the sales of vitamins and supplements throughout the pandemic but at the same time we saw a huge spike in sales for all the items that consumers naturally associate with healthy living and produce for instance that was oranges we sold more oranges in 2020 than we typically do in the course of two years and i think that is one of the areas that we're going to continue to see in the next couple of quarters and years across different categories is that idea of creating health halos and the idea of really stressing what a food can do for you in addition to the functional benefit of simply feeding a family and feeding the shopper and so the idea of stressing the actual nutrients the actual benefit to the body not just in terms of the it has vitamin c or it has iron but really what does vitamin c do for you relating it back to the kind of thing like immune building or giving you energy um and that type of thing so i think that's going to be an area that is going to be increasingly important and it also is expressing itself in people looking to buy more fresh items and in terms of the distribution impact of course we're going to see as people are in store more often we're going to see a greater engagement with fresh again due to that idea of healthy living the second area is actually directly related to that and that is transparency what we see across categories whether i look at chocolate meat or produce it doesn't matter the consumer wants to know more about the product that they're buying they want to know how it benefits them as a consumer what is the impact on the environment what's the impact maybe on the animal if we're talking about meat or seafood and also what are we doing in terms of social responsibility but the idea of transparency to talk about the who what where in the product is incredibly important and it's driving dollars and interest and we're going to take a deep dive into that social responsibility i talked about that a little bit it was always sort of the number four when you looked at the better for me better for the planet better for the animal and then it was always in fourth the better for the worker the farmer the people in the supply chain but in 2020 i think the idea of social responsibility really took on new legs and in part it was because of the workers going into the plants and going into the farms and into the processing areas to make sure that the world could eat and the idea of us having to take care of the people in our supply chain as well as taking care of the need of those that need help with their food situation really elevated the importance of social responsibility and that is something that i don't think is going to go away as well so it's going to be important for us throughout the supply chain as all of us are struggling with labor issues to really emphasize the fourth area is environmental sustainability and that of course is part of transparency it's part of the bigger movement of the planet feeds us but we need to make sure we take care of the the planet as well we're going to take a deep dive into that because technology is making big inroads in that area my next area is what i call time well saved and time well spent what we saw in the pandemic is that people went to the store less often and that meant that all that effort that we had put into creating retail environments in which it was fun to shop and we tried to slow people down because we know dwelling is selling all of a sudden changed because we knew people weren't coming to the store as often when they were there they were shopping for the next week or two weeks and they wanted to run through the store as fast as they could so instead of trying to slow people down we really started to focus on speeding people up and we saw that with increased online sales we saw that with having produce already in bags and have any which way we could help the people save time both in shopping and preparation and planning etc so that is a big area and i believe technology has a big function in that as well the next one where we're going to pause quite a bit is shopping reinvented what i mean by that is of course we saw e-commerce explode but we see so many new ways of getting food and beverage products to the consumer all enabled by technology and we're going to take a big look at that food safety now of course anybody in the food business knows that food safety is the foundation of everything that we do we cannot sell product food a beverage product that is if we don't pay attention to food safety so in a way food safety isn't changing a whole lot in the way we do things but the consumers certainly have their eye on food safety now more than ever even though covet 19 was not a food related disease it is something that consumers started to worry about they started to worry about well if i grab a box that somebody else has touched or is it safe to eat meat when we know that a lot of processing plants have covered cases etc and so food safety really became an area that consumers focused on more and i think it's very important for our industry to use technology to communicate about all the things that we do as an industry anyway in the areas of food safety in other words we don't have to do a whole lot of things differently we just need to talk about it more and really give people the confidence that the food and the beverage they consume and the entire supply chain all the transportation in between the different lengths of the supply chain food safety is front and center for all of us upskill and educate i think that's a very important area as well what i mean by that is if the pandemic helped us out in one way it was the idea of consumers having to shop more often and cook meals more often and that wasn't just dinner it was breakfast lunch dinner snacks beverages you name it all those meal occasions move to the home and especially younger shoppers they invested in all sorts of different kitchen appliances and even basic cutting boards knives what have you and so the idea of supporting this increased knowledge and people having some fun with baking fun with cooking etc that's really important because that's how we continue to keep the retail dollar the food dollar in retail another area we're going to look deeply into is the area personalization customization that's something that we've seen coming on very strong in the last couple of years really across all food and beverage including restaurants think about your latest starbucks order and how long that that drink is at your order instead of just a cup of joe like it used to be so we're going to look at that profits and promotion that's another area where technology is absolutely driving sales and driving growth we're much better at margin management we're much better at planning micro fulfillment what have you and really targeted promotions instead of areas where everybody gets the same kind of ad regardless of your income of what you typically buy etc last but not least labor i wish we had time to talk about that more because every webinar i've been on in the last uh i would say six months labor is the big topic of discussion it doesn't matter whether you're in the field in the in the plant uh in the store in transportation in the warehouse everybody is struggling with labor and a lot of the solutions relative to labor lie in technology in terms of automation but that is one of the areas that that's another speech in and of itself and certainly trying to cover all these topics in 30 minutes will be tough so let's have a look transparency that's one of our deep dives well technology has really enabled our storytelling ability and what i mean by that is oftentimes we think of retailers as just simply sellers of food but more than anything consumers these days want to know where their produce or where their food and beverages are coming from and all of a sudden through the help of technology and we're going to look at a few pictures here in a minute we're able to see where something was produced how it was produced for instance think about produce and the idea that something was grown in a greenhouse versus field grown where exactly was it grown was it a family farm was it uh in california or in florida um did the farmer work worry at all about limiting water usage etc and so the whole idea of the local the state or regional was it field grown or a greenhouse drone etc technology is really enabling the grower in a much easier way to transmit all that information that the shopper is looking for additionally we see huge growth across food and cat of food and beverage categories in production claims what i mean by that is any and all claims that talk about a certain way in which either the ingredients were sourced where they were sourced or how the product was produced so we see big growth continued growth in organic and all things local non-gmo sustainable etc and in a way all of those simply talk about how the product was produced and leveraging technology has been a great way to tell that story to the consumers we also continue to see big influence of ingredient claims so more than anything the nutrition facts fail is one thing but companies have gotten really good at leveraging that front of pack with different call outs things like free from or no low high in type claims and across categories that is growing sales above companies and brands that are not doing that so let's have a look at some of these different uh ways in which technology can help bring the story alive and again we're going to do this through the lens of produce we have pictures from all over the world and as you see here even though i am currently in the florida market when visiting a florida retailer here publix i was able to visit our farm in california using the qr code and being able to see where the strawberries were grown the exact farm and the exact field technology enabling to bring the field to the consumer on the your right you see a store in morocco that is having a lot of produce grown in greenhouses and they're using qr technology that has absolutely made back a huge comeback and enabling people to look at how things were grown and recipes and information about the grower itself and the qr code is definitely something we're going to see more of going forward technology can also help us talk about the who and where here you see some great examples of that there's a brand called thanks that makes cherries and pears and some other items and they are using technology where you can hold up your phone to that little white box and a video starts to play that says scan my dream to know how your food was grown and we see this video enable technology more and more in addition to the qr code and of course all the food rating systems that are popping up around around the world and having to understand what the impact was on things like water usage soil usage uh the type of farmers that were involved growing the product etc technology can also talk about the how and what here you see some more indications where retailers are teaming up with hydroponic growers and really bringing hydroponic grown vegetables very close into urban centers so the idea of technology in hydroponic growing in produce for instance is completely changing the supply chain and where things are coming from now produce is an interesting example in that but i think we're going to see this idea of localized transportation and production micro fulfillment centers for online orders etc going to change the future of food and beverage retailing for years to come so let's talk a little bit about environmental sustainability because that's an interesting one as well again when we think about the idea of better for me the planet the worker the farmer the animal um we see environmental sustainability be in a very solid second behind health and wellness and sustainability is something that matters quite a bit to the millennial generation across categories including produce but whether i look at chocolate or meat or produce i see the same statistics currently the boomer and the gen x shopper are the biggest spenders because they tend to still have the biggest families boomer spending is reducing very quickly millennial spending is gearing up very quickly so if we look at who is the generation that cares about environmental sustainability it's the millennials so if you haven't seen huge update in your sustainability efforts yet it is absolutely coming between millennials and gen x and then their generation behind the millennials the gen z environmental sustainability is much higher on their radar so everything is going to matter whether it's food waste and then think about what are you doing for extended shelf life it's a very interesting question relative to produce right but really relative to all products especially on the fresh side think about product and demand forecasting so that the items that come into the store are as fresh as they can be in addition to food waste we're dealing with packaging waste and that's not just at the consumer at home but it's at retail it's at wholesale and it's really throughout the entire supply chain in addition to the idea of resource reduction whether it's energy and water and responsible sourcing carbon footprint in the u.s is not as important as i've seen for instance in the european market where a lot of products are starting to have that carbon footprint a little label on the box that's not something we're seeing here quite a bit yet but absolutely that is something that will come to because a lot of people are looking for the actual proof in the pudding if you will in terms of what our company's doing and what is uh how am i feeling with my wallet in all of these areas so in looking at some examples out of the market again through the lens of produce here you see that a lot of retailers are making commitment to zero waste that zero food waste feeding america making sure that people are aware of all the waste near a safeway canada for instance having sales signs all throughout the store talking about wasting fruit and vegetables they have signs on the number of dollars that are used but also pounds as you can see here so education is a big part of the idea of sustainability then we see all sorts of technology that extends the shelf life of produce items and of course that's something that we've been doing in center store for many years so hazel technology for instance helps uh fresh produce stay fresh longer not only at retail but also at home we see a lot of uptake on items that weren't as perfect and finding different distribution channels and consumers that might be willing to buy imperfect produce so they don't end up in the landfill and out of the netherlands i'm seeing a lot of innovation in small portion sizes of course that's something we've been doing in center store and beverage for a long time think about all those small cans of coke but we're seeing it in fresh more and more too where meat is having smaller pack sizes and you see these cauliflowers and other typically fairly large vegetables now being roughly the size of a grapefruit which is perfect to reduce food waste among smaller families we see a lot of focus on packaging waste as well so whether we look at produce or other areas you see the styrofoam items reduce rapidly we see more cardboard you see more recyclable compostable trays and you see a lot of fruit and vegetables that used to be packaged now being sold without packaging either with some kind of imprint that shows the item and a lot of retailers also making sure that consumers are aware of this so that we can all work on this together commitments relative to energy and water reduction are important as well we see companies talk about the fact that hydrochronically grown means that it saved a lot of water and across a year's worth of production that's quite a bit of water reduction especially in europe we see a lot more items being behind closed doors when it relates to refrigeration and freezers and a lot of them are actively calling out the idea that that is saving 25 percent of energy or whatever the number is again to bring the industry of efforts back to the consumer as well shopping reinvented that's one of my favorite topics of course we all saw the explosion of e-commerce over the last 15 or so months we saw more people starting to buy online they were buying more online and more frequently but that's really only the beginning of how we're shopping differently for produce and other items we see vending machines popping up with produce and meat and all sorts of items in it we see subscription services where you can just automatically have items delivered to your home whether it's dog food or toilet paper or a produce tips that you receive every week we see and things like drone delivery starting to pop up a robot delivery starting to pop up and of course when people are in store there's a lot of changes relative to technology as well so let's have a quick look at that first of all subscriptions not only in produce but in meat and all sorts of non-foods as well you can have automated deliveries having once a week or maybe once a month you can have all the items delivered for one smoothie and oftentimes we see those types of new formats go and start in the online world and come into the store and one good example of that is a farmer's bridge this is a vending machine that you often see in places like convention centers airports and you can out of the vending machine get a salad all sorts of different ones and now we're seeing the farmer fridge salads be sold in retail as well kroger here in the us is looking at drone delivery and they're testing three different things a little package with diapers let's just say you're at the restaurant and realize that you don't have any diapers using your smartphone you can have drone delivery directly to the restaurant where you're in need and of course we see a lot of robots especially in the restaurant side of things used for delivery for automatic replenishing and even starting to follow people around in a grocery store for instance mars the candy company is doing some tests with robots trying to bring eminence in front of people as you're shopping outside of the candy aisle we see a lot of innovation relative to delivery models so for instance we see gorilla coming down to the united states as well known for their 15-minute delivery in highly urban areas we see anything from drugstores to big box stores going into delivery it's no longer next day or whenever we can get to it but more and more it's same day delivery within two hours within one hour and that really drastically changes the way the consumer thinks and it also makes sure that we have to really close the intersection between inspiration and purchasing because now what we can do is have somebody find an interesting recipe on pinterest or any other site say load all the items in the cart and have it delivered to me within the hour and inspiration and a sale all happens in the same couple of clicks we also see technology making big inroads into store as i mentioned we're all struggling with labor so we see more and more kiosks and automated type of things replacing what used to be done by people we see things like digital signage preparation automation and salad robots coming up and of course we also have entire stores that are focused on frictionless shopping meaning there is no checkout you just load the items in your cart and descartes tallies up as you go and your credit card is automatically charged as you move the store that has huge implications for how we do business in retail think about all the items and produce that you used to have to sit and weigh now you've got to figure out a way to price items by the each you have to figure out a way to where it makes it very easy for automated systems like this to enable to use the technology and have consumers buy the items another area i'd love to talk more about is upscale inspire and educate for the simple reason that we were getting to the point where a lot of the younger millennials were struggling with cooking and they were eating almost out as much as they were cooking at home now what we're seeing is that a lot of the people that used to eat out a lot are making meals at home across all the meal occasions but it's also getting old to cook so more people are looking for recipes and that's really where technology comes in we look at qr codes and label technology where you have labels that come with a certain smell or you can automatically load it to your cooking device if you will we see a lot of items providing inspiration from the appliance back so in other words if you want to cook with your hot air fryer or you want to cook with your instant pot here are some recipes for that and also in the idea of sampling and leveraging online shopping are important in this area and let me show you some different technology applications in the area of consumer education we've mentioned your qr code a couple times and i think it's absolutely making a comeback and not just for recipes but also for educating what part of the guava can you eat how do you prepare it how long can you store it etc so think about the qr code in all the different applications also think about technology relative to bringing inspiration differently we see a lot more interactive boards when you're in the store environment being able to ask alexa for information needing help on anything whether that's a recipe or hey i'm putting lamb in my cart how i'm gonna how i'm going to make that but more than anything too with so many people looking for inspiration online and buying food online we have a huge opportunity to tie together all the trends we're talking about today with technology so in other words when people are buying or searching online for inspiration we can talk about sustainability we can talk about transparency about recipes about health and well-being and it's very important that we just make that easy and make it possible for people technology can also enable sampling we all know we buy food and beverage through our stomach more than anything and that of course was a difficult area to do during the pandemic when we were trying to limit person to person contact so that's where we see a lot of automation using food trucks using kiosks and all sorts of other things i mentioned also creating meals from the appliance back so you see retailers coming out with crock-pot meals with instant pot meals and that really helps people to really skip past the planning phase and using technology in order to not only plan but also execute the meal last but not least quick few seconds on profit and promotions that is an area that has gotten even more attention in food retail so we all know food retail is not an area of easy riches it is a absolute volume driven type of channel and typically retailers make about a penny a penny and a half on the dollar so the idea of optimizing margins and optimizing profits and promotions is incredibly important and a lot of technology is being used there we're starting to automate a lot of the ordering and a lot of the replenishment type of systems we're looking at shrink management production management labor management but also relative to consumer facing areas we see that we use a lot more technology instead of blanket type of promotions a lot of the promotions can now be targeted based on what we bought before based on what we think the person will like and you'll see some examples of that over here more than anything we need to make sure that people still see new items still see seasonal items when they're buying online it's also important that as the paper version of the circular is going away we start collecting emails and and all sorts of other ways to get in front of people but more than anything what we see is there just continues to be a lot of focus on fresh items as people plan the shopping trip so there was a reason why we chose produce as our lens because produce and meat are the most uh important when people pick a certain store over another or as they decide what is for dinner so the idea of optimization in promotions and when we get in front of people continues to be very important so that is my quick half an hour and i look forward to all of your questions i leave i'm leaving you here with my email aware 210analytics.com
or find me on linkedin i often post about food and beverages all the different categories we talked about today and it was my pleasure to share with you some of the trends in technology in food and beverage thank you
2022-09-12