2021 Consumer Expenditures Report | Progressive Grocer

New and Notable

Grocers with an eye on current and future spending trends can get some actionable insights by looking at the top new products introduced in the past year. Despite many challenges in the marketplace, a spate of new products caught shoppers’ attention — and their dollars.

In its recently released “New Product Pacesetters” report, Chicago-based IRI ranked 200 high-performing new items that fit the bill for shoppers in 2020. According to the 26th annual report, many of these new products resonated with consumers as they spent differently — and typically spent more — on both necessities and items that made them feel better.

And spend they did: The latest “New Product Pacesetters” shows FEATURE 74th Annual Consumer Expenditures Report The Goods on Shoppers’ Spend On a more granular basis, consumers spent their money on a little bit of everything as they contended with major lifestyle changes wrought by the pandemic. As people cooked and prepared more meals at home, pantry staples got the benefit of more sales, as did food and beverages that provided some kind of escapism or indulgence. Not surprisingly during a health crisis emanating from a transmissible virus, the health, self-care and cleaning supply categories received a bump in consumer purchases. that more than a quarter of the items introduced before the pandemic in late 2019 or early 2020 had big gains and accounted for 51 of the total 200 Pacesetter products.

“The top New Product Pacesetters of 2020 accomplished a unique feat by achieving success in circumstances never before seen in the history of Pacesetters,” says Joan Driggs, VP of content and thought leadership for IRI. “Many shoppers made the leap to new products because their go-to brand was unavailable, but many also actively sought out innovation for new experiences, measured not just by dollars earned, but also by the ability to reach the intended audience.”