Home Baking – a new trend with need for innovation
After the sudden rise of cooking at home resulting from the initial lockdown measures, consumers are returning to old habits and we see this trend returning to pre-lockdown levels. However, the opportunity still exists for brands and retailers to retain trialists of the home baking & ingredients category, albeit on a less frequent basis. Let’s consider how they might do this.
Home baking has seen huge increases in demand as consumers looked to solve availability issues by taking a DIY approach. According to The Grocer, ‘banana bread became the most searched recipe on the BBC website’ at the beginning of the pandemic and 86% of Brits made cakes or biscuits. The Economist also reported a five-fold increase in Google searches for baking terms in March.
This new group of baking enthusiasts should be viewed as a big opportunity for the Home Baking category, a chance to reach more consumers and potential loyal shoppers on a longer term. For retailers and manufacturers then, the key is knowing what shoppers want from the category and where the opportunities lay versus the competition.
One critical area that could be an opportunity to differentiate is through innovation. Home Baking is a category that has a very strong growth potential from innovation – shoppers are much more likely to agree that when shopping this category, they’ll, “buy extra to try new and different”. 52% agreement vs. 36% for the average category – a significant over index.
Home Baking shoppers are engaged
These shoppers are also much more likely to be engaged with shopping the category making for the ‘perfect storm’. 14% of shoppers are interested to look around when shopping Home Baking, compared to only 8% on average – this isn’t an autopilot purchase! Amongst other shopper metrics, this is an important indicator of shopper engagement.
Shoppers are not satisfied with Premium products in Home Baking
We know the potential then, but what might be stopping shoppers from buying the category more regularly? The gap could lay in more premium options. Shopper satisfaction with ‘Premium’ is currently significantly below average for the Home Baking category – ranking as the 134th category (of 181) in terms of satisfaction, there’s clearly work that needs to be done.
Home Baking shoppers are ready to switch stores
What’s more, if this satisfaction challenge isn’t addressed, there is a very real risk that shoppers won’t buy the category and will simply walk away – a lost purchase that may never be replaced. 19% of Home Baking shoppers will, “go to another store” if they can’t find their choice. Compared to the average category at 11%, this is significantly higher and amongst the top 25 categories at risk in store.
Interested in other UK shopper insights? Look around in our Resources section! Got questions about your categories? Contact us to speak to an expert.
All data in this blog post by Shopper Intelligence UK. Online survey of n=77,000 UK shoppers in all UK multiples, of which n=390 Home Baking shoppers.
Rank: rank of the % on this statement for Home Baking products category compared to 181 FMCG categories.
