5 Things You Need to Know about the Millennial Produce Buyer

Millennial_Buyer-3Guest Blog Post from Kristin Yerecic – Marketing Manager at Yerecic Label

First things first- why do we care about Millennials? It is crucial that we appeal to this group of 18 to 35 year olds because their discretionary spending is expected to exceed that of the baby boomers as they become increasingly established. Also, recent studies have shown that while previous generations were more concerned about calories and fat, Millennials care more about food being fresh. This is the perfect recipe for fresh produce marketers seeking to increase fresh produce consumption and the overall health of the U.S.

Those of you that work with Yerecic Label know that we continuously look for opportunities to interact with produce consumers to learn what our clients can do to engage the shopper. We welcomed the opportunity to work with Food Marketing Institute and 210 Analytics, LLC on the Power of Produce 2015 in determining how consumers are using produce and what trends we can forecast to help increase consumption.

We were astounded by the differences in millennial fresh produce consumers compared to other demographics, so Yerecic Label put together information to help growers better connect with this audience. Let’s start by understanding millennial buyer traits:

  1. Digital resources are growing in importance for Millennials’ grocery trip planning.
    Amongst millennials, digital resources for grocery shopping are growing in popularity. Millennials are almost five times more likely to use a store app and two times more likely to use a digital resource than Boomers.millennial_buyer_infographic
  2. Millennials are the highly susceptible to impulse purchases.
    Compared to millennials, shoppers age 65+ are twice as likely to stick to their shopping list. In fact, Millennials are the most susceptible shoppers to impulse purchases at 64 percent compared to all consumers at 57 percent. 
  3. Millennials are more concerned about recipes and preparation time when purchasing produce.
    Recipes, product information and preparation time are two times more important to Millennials than Baby Boomers. Millennials are the first generation that is just as likely to build a shopping list around recipes (43%) or meal plans (36%) as they are in-store sales (37%). 
  4. New produce items are more interesting to Millennials than Baby Boomers.
    Dragonfruit, Kumquats, Paw Paws… bring it on! 35 percent of Millennials said that new produce varieties were very important versus just 17 percent of ages 50+. While Millennials are interested in new produce varieties, they struggle with item preparation which makes providing product information, recipe ideas and storage tips very valuable to this demographic. 
  5. Produce for snacking and smoothies/juicing are new ways that Millennials are preparing fruits and vegetables. 
    Grab your green smoothie and a veggie pack to go! The Millennial generation is constantly time crunched and looking for ways to utilize quick produce fixes such as snacking and smoothie/juicing. Many of the older Millennials are becoming first time parents and see these two options as a quick, easy and effective way to get their recommended daily produce. 

As a Millennial, avid produce lover and primary shopper for my household, I may be a little biased but the data doesn’t lie. Millennials are poised to increase produce consumption significantly if we continue to understand and deliver on their produce needs.

For more information on the Millennial Produce Buyer, please feel free to contact me at YLfresh.com or experts@yereciclabel.com!

Posted by: Kristin Yerecic – Marketing Manager, Yerecic Label