Two years ago, unprecedented global lockdowns meant that the process of food shopping as we knew it was completely turned on its head. We were told to visit the supermarket just once a week. There were shortages of everything from toilet paper to pasta. Supermarket delivery slots became like gold-dust. And endless supermarket queues, empty shelves and the health risks of in-store shopping became significant new pain points for consumers.
It’s no wonder then, that out of this real consumer need to easily access groceries with little or no contact, we saw an entire new breed of retailer appear over night. As rapid grocery delivery services emerged left right and centre, offering consumers access to the products they needed, when they needed them, behaviours and expectations transformed at pace.
Fast forward to 2022 and although the supermarkets have returned to pre-Covid trading, the retail landscape is not the same. The “Need it Now Mindset”, sparked by the accelerated growth of rapid grocery delivery services, has profoundly revolutionised the FMCG sector. The shift in consumer behaviour is considerable and FMCG brands must embrace these changes if they want to stay ahead of their competitors.
At Wavemaker, we exist to deliver exceptional growth for our clients. But to do this, we have to run towards change. So to help our clients stay ahead of this new consumer behaviour, we set out to better understand how our addiction to convenience is disrupting the traditional shopper journey.
Leveraging our expertise in audience science, we went out and asked 2000 UK consumers about the services they use, when and why they are using them and how their expectations of brands are changing as a result. Then we put our heads together and created an action plan for brands looking to engage this new breed of ‘need it now’ shopper.
Our latest whitepaper, ‘The Need it Now Revolution’, explains how brands can navigate the evolving retail landscape and engage the new breed of ‘need it now’ shopper.
