São Paulo – Brazilians are seeking healthy foods, pushing the supermarkets of the Latin American country to try and meet the preference of the consumer. This was one of the leading trends of the supermarket industry presented in APAS Show 2023, the largest food and beverage trade show in the Americas that is taking place in São Paulo from last Monday (15) through Thursday (18).
The shopping behavior in supermarkets was the topic of a press conference held in the second day of the show, where Carlos Correa, director-general of APAS, Valéria Rodrigues, CEO of Shopper Experience, and Felipe Queiroz, economist of APAS, discussed the revenue of the sector, the consumer in supermarkets both in-store and online, as well as food retail trends, such as the demand for healthy foods.
“There’s a new concept of healthy eating that’s being developed in supermarkets. It’s present in gyms, emporiums, and specialty stores, but it’s yet to be organized in supermarkets,” said the director-general of APAS during the conference.
This demand for a healthier diet was also showed by the survey carried out by Shopper Experience. From 2020 to 2023, the proportion of respondents saying they seek to include organic, natural and minimally processed goods stayed over 53%.
“We’ve noticed a very consistent trend in healthy and organic foods. We understand that when over 50% of people say they try to eat healthy over the years, we can safely say it’s a habit that’s been integrated. I believe this is the strongest trend among consumers,” explained Rodrigues.
The highest valued healthy foods are those vitamin-enhanced, lactose-free and gluten-free. For meeting this trend, APAS Show allocated a bloc focused on healthiness, where the companies were divided into two groups: taste, and functional products.
“According to the consumer behavior data, I believe the two groups are growing together. Gluten-free and lactose-free are being valued in a world where not everyone is intolerant, but as the both the market and the medical community talk about this, people integrate these habits into their lives, as was the case with trans fat 10 years ago, explained Rodrigues.
The survey by Shopper Experience has also showed an increase in the variety of organic foods in the shopping basket. Greens, vegetables and fruit have kept their leading positions, followed by honey, poultry, and sugar.
Despite the growing interest for healthy food, two main reasons drive away consumers: price and difficulties in finding this type of products. Retailers are thus working on gradually smoothing away these barriers.
According to the survey presented, some good result can already be seen. From 2022 to 2023, the number of people that mentioned price and hassle as the reasons for not eating healthier dropped from 12% to 8%.
Shopping habits have changed
Changes in the consumer behavior in the past three years include how grocery shopping is done. Over 65% of the respondents said they’ve made online purchases in 2023. Last year this number stood at 52%. The highest increases were in the upper and upper middle classes, and the male consumers.
“During the pandemic, when most purchases became online, supermarkets rushed to serve the consumer in a unique way. They understood that consumers would turn to e-commerce but worked on creating special features as way to take them to brick-and-mortar stores as well,” said Correa.
Motives that lead people to buy online include not having time to go to brick-and-mortar stores, easiness to compare prices, lower prices, delivery scheduling, and higher product variety.
As for the experience in supermarket brick-and-mortar stores, regardless of age, social class or gender, the most valued feature is the service, followed by a spacious environment, thermal comfort, lightning, technology (self-checkout optimization), and ambient sound.
“There’s room for all types of market and consumers, with both segments working simultaneously. There are products like greens and meats that people are still resistant to buying online. They like to look at the lettuce and the tomato, as they are wary of how products will be selected if they buy them online,” said Queiroz.
The survey by Shopper interviewed online 520 people from across all regions of the country last month.
Nutrify meets demand for clean label
Nutrify Real Foods, a brand by Integralmédica, was one of the exhibitors of healthy foods at APAS Show. The firm was established in 2017 to meet a consumer demand for clean-label foods and has been growing a lot since, said Erica Zago, Marketing manager of Nutrify Real Foods.
The brand features a vegetarian and vegan line as well as non-animal protein powders like Vegan Tasty. Most products are gluten-free and lactose-free, and all of them are sugar-free. They can be found on Nutrify’s e-commerce and partner retailers that sell it across Brazil. Despite being focused on the domestic market, the products are also exported to countries in Latin America, including Colombia, Bolivia, Uruguay and Chile.
Zago explained that until last year the company had a communication focused on doctors and nutritionists, as it was hard to explain the prices of the clean-label products to the final consumers. Aside from that, the audience is mostly female, from 18 to 55 years of age.
“We work hard on education, informing consumers on the differences between raw materials, formulae, the choice for more natural, healthier foods. We don’t talk much about high performance, as that’s more the focus of Integralmédica. We talk about healthy longevity, life quality, supplementation, and nutritional needs that must be met.”
Wewi, of organic soft drinks
Riding the wave of tasty healthy products is Wewi, the first Brazilian brand to make organic tonic water and soft drinks. Established in 2013, the company currently sells 17 items across all states of Brazil via e-commerce, and the Southeast, South and Northeast regions are served by partner groups Pão de Açúcar, Sam’s Club, and Santa Luzia.
Iago Rocha, Marketing coordinator of Wewi, explained the beverages are made with no preservatives or artificial ingredients, and fromraw materials (fruit and vegetables) harvested according to their own crop time. The ages of Wewi’s consumers range from 25 to 30 years of age.
APAS Show expects to welcome 120,000 visitors from the sector.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
