Natural Products Industry Health Monitor, July 15, 2021
 

As the world emerges, haltingly and unevenly, from lockdown, new challenges emerge. In this feature, New Hope Network provides an ongoing update on those challenges and the opportunities they hold. Look for the Industry Health Monitor every other Friday to learn the major news that is affecting the natural products market immediately and the less obvious insights that could dictate where the market may struggle or thrive in the months to come.

Consider this: Influence of current events could be a good match for natural products purchases

Shopping doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

It’s not that we didn’t know that. Food trends and health scares have long driven purchase decisions across all channels of commerce, and maybe natural retail in particular. It’s just that the roar of outside events seems particularly loud right now.

And the influence on purchase patterns and consumer behavior seems particularly high.

We see that in New Hope Network consumer research. Since spring of 2020, a recurring survey has tracked consumer behavior across environmental/social issues and choices around nutrition quality, capturing values and concerns that are intrinsic to the natural and organic industry value proposition. We can compare those results to a benchmark survey covering the same topics in 2017. In the summer of 2021, we see what appears to be the influence of current events at a profound scale.

Responses for both the nutrition quality and eco-social consumer behavior are remarkably higher than when we first deployed the surveys, higher even than in the late summer of 2020 when the pandemic disrupted life at a massive scale.