Tremendous Growth Potential for Natural Foods
It may seem simple, but it is not as easy as merely adding a few new product lines to the store shelves or setting up a separate natural foods section inside the store.
To draw this business and meet the needs of these customers, retailers need to become as knowledgeable about natural and organic foods and products as the people they hope to sell to. This segment of consumers knows more, and asks more, and the retailer who will enjoy the long-term benefits of these natural sales will be the one who can answer their questions.
Your naturals section will be most successful, and most profitable, if you follow a few basic guidelines to cater to the natural products customer.
First, when conceptualizing your naturals section, work with a knowledgeable natural products distributor who can assist you with product selection, competitive pricing, promotional strategies and merchandising. Working in partnership with a distributor who understands this industry will help you build a solid foundation for your own natural products section.
Second, realize the importance of product information and education for this new customer group. Natural products magazines, shelf talkers, product demos and other consumer information are vitally important to the success of your section.
Third, assign a natural products section manager who is knowledgeable about the products, knows how they differ from commercial brands, can answer customers’ questions, and is committed to your customers’ natural products education.
Most of all, associates and customers must be encouraged to take time to savor what those in the natural products industry have grown to love: the flavor, the quality, and the absolute uniqueness of natural foods. Knowledge of and enthusiasm for these products, perhaps more than anything else, will be a deciding factor in the success of your store’s natural products section.
Who Is Buying Natural Foods?
Consumer interest in, and concern for, health and nutrition has driven natural and organic foods and products right into the thick of mainstream. Once available only in co-ops or health food stores, natural and organic foods have made definite headway into the traditional grocery market and now represent the fastest-growing segment of the grocery industry.
A recent article in Organic & Natural News reported that people who buy natural products are more educated—69% of female and 74% of male natural products shoppers report higher education, ranging from some college to post-graduate degrees. They are in a higher income bracket—the highest percentage of natural foods shoppers report an annual household income of $60,000 or more. And, they are younger—almost two-thirds are between the ages of 30 and 59, with an even distribution of singles, couples and parents.
Perhaps the best news for supermarkets, though, is that most natural foods shoppers (56%) are currently buying their organic foods at a grocery store rather than a natural products store. And, 60% of the consumers polled for one of the surveys cited in the Organic & Natural News article indicated they had never bought organic food products, but would be willing to try them.
What’s the Difference in Taste and Appearance Between Natural and Conventional Foods
Taste and appearance of natural and conventional products are often different. For example, natural peanut butter tastes like peanuts, rather than a peanut-based sandwich spread. A sip of a natural peach juice will be more reminiscent of biting into a fresh peach than a commercial juice whose added sweeteners and artificial flavors will be more closely aligned to a fruit punch than fresh fruit.
In addition, the natural peanut butter will look different than a more traditional brand. The oil in the peanut butter will separate in the jar, while its commercial counterpart, because it is more highly processed, will not. The same is true of juices. Natural juices are often unfiltered and as a result may have a small layer of sediment in the bottom of the bottle
Why People Buy Natural Foods
Superior flavor and quality are two reasons people choose natural and organic foods, but there are many other reasons, including:
- Support of organic agriculture and small family farms who have found a niche and a profit in organic production
- Concern for the environment
- lifestyle choice of a vegetarian or vegan diet
- Special dietary needs due to food allergies, sensitivities or other health restrictions
Not All Natural Foods Are Organic
A clear distinction should be made between natural and organic. The terms are not interchangeable. The use of the term “organic” is regulated by the USDA’s organic rules, now in the final stages of adoption. The use of the term “natural,” on the other hand, is currently not regulated.
Natural foods fit the profile described above, but production can cover a wide range of farming methods. Organic production, on the other hand, elevates the foods one step higher on the food purity ladder. Organic crops are grown without the use of any synthetic pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, fumigants, fungicides, fertilizers or other synthetic materials.
What Are Natural Foods?
What Are Natural Foods?
Basically, what distinguishes organic and natural foods from commercially available products is the way the food or ingredients are grown, how heavily the product is refined or processed, and the nutritional profile of the end product.
A broad definition of natural foods (or whole foods, as they are sometimes called) is that they support a healthy lifestyle, offer high nutritional value, promote long-term good health, and are free of artificial ingredients and preservatives.
Many frozen products, including meats and seafood, are also thought of as natural. For some consumers, the closer the finished product is to its original state, the more “natural” it is. Conversely, the further away the product gets from its natural state, the greater the nutritional loss. The food is at its nutritional peak when it is fresh and raw; anything that happens past that point, including cooking, diminishes its nutritional levels.
For example, a kernel of rice which has just been harvested will consist of a hull (or husk), bran, polish (a thin skin under the bran) and germ. The hull must be removed before the rice can be eaten, but if the rest is left intact, the end result is brown rice, a natural foods staple.
If the bran and polish is removed, the resulting product is white rice, a food which is more refined and therefore less nutritional, but which still can be considered “natural.”
If the rice is further processed—ground into flour or puffed and combined with other ingredients to make a rice cake—it’s moved one step further from its original natural state, but can still find its way onto a natural products shelf.
If, however, the rice cake is made with artificial flavors, colors, sweeteners, or preservatives, it belongs somewhere other than in your natural products section.
Natural Foods Marketplace
Natural foods are the fastest growing product area in the supermarket today. For retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers the question is not whether this trend will continue, but how to seize the opportunity natural and organic foods present.
NATURAL FOODS have seen major changes in the past 20 years. If when you think of natural foods your image is of bulk beans, rice, whole wheat flour, and granola, you will be surprised to see what’s available today, especially in the frozen foods department.
The sales growth of Whole Foods (21%) and Wild Oats (36%), together with Wal-Marts’ plans to add organic SKUs underscore the importance of this product area.