New research on UK shopper insight has provided a unique insight in to the minds of consumers when purchasing seafood, revealing the species, products and offers that could drive sales of seafood over the next few years.
The research by Kantar Worldwide estimated that through optimal shopper targeting, over £38m could be added to the seafood category, conservatively based on 10% of shoppers making one additional purchase per year. The seafood segments with the largest potential are chilled natural (£7.2m), frozen natural (£5.4m) and smoked (£4.7m) with businesses encouraged to provide more recipe and meal inspiration to shoppers to encourage purchase. Prawns were identified as a key species, in both chilled and frozen formats, where the seafood industry could make big gains.
Other important findings included the fact that consumers are putting increasing importance on quality, with 21% ranking it as important, up from 16% in 2013, and that is expected to increase further this year. The frozen category was identified as an area where businesses could improve education about the perceived quality of frozen seafood as well as pitching it to families as ‘freezer essentials’.
The research was commissioned by the UK’s Seafish to drive a greater understanding of the seafood shopper and consumer behaviour. Seven touch points were used to capture the shopper journey from planning through to consumption by category and key fish species with a focus on the chilled and frozen sectors.
