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Issuers trying to grow their credit card portfolios this year will need to rely on rewards tailored to everyday spend categories like groceries as consumers pull back on nonessentials. They can also offer welcome bonuses like 0% APRs on balance transfers and in-app budgeting tools to help cardholders feel like they have their financial houses in order.

Rising costs across fast food and grocery staples like coffee, orange juice, and chocolate are shifting consumer spending habits. Lower-income consumers, in particular, are pulling back on QSR spending, affecting industrywide sales. Our take: Zigging when others zag is often a winning strategy, and McDonald’s decision to use the Egg McMuffin as a loss leader is already paying off.

Consumers are particularly worried about grocery and gasoline prices, Numerator found. In response, consumers plan to look for more sales and coupons to offset price increases. Key stat: Brands and retailers must make sure consumers can seamlessly switch between mobile, online, and in-store shopping.

Costco shoppers are spending more on groceries than food away from home, CFO Gary Millerchip said—a trend that explains why Walmart and other grocers are doubling down on prepared foods and foodservice partnerships.

Grocery retailer Asda is selling refurbished TVs in select supermarkets. Pre-loved resale app Vinted has launched a dedicated category for refurbished electronics. Predictions. GenAI will help boost profitability for resellers. By automating the time-consuming and expensive process of listing individual items for sale, genAI will bring some welcome profitability to the secondhand sector.

Grocery stores are the top shopping destination, with 46% of consumers planning to visit them for St. Patrick’s Day. Key stat: Consumers have mixed feelings about frozen food. Half of US consumers think the freshness of frozen foods is worse than non-frozen counterparts, according to a March report from Ask Attest.

Uber has evolved from a ride-hailing app to a prominent player in restaurant and grocery delivery, while DoorDash has been working to expand beyond restaurant delivery into groceries and general merchandise. Instacart, meanwhile, has developed a tech portfolio under its Connected Stores offering that enables in-store advertising.

But the biggest determinant of where consumers buy their groceries is their proximity to a store. Opening more stores makes its locations more convenient to more consumers, helping the retailer capture more grocery spending.

The next front in Temu’s campaign against Amazon will revolve around low-cost grocery. Temu could appeal to inflation-weary consumers by introducing the gamified, group-buying grocery shopping concept that made sister app Pinduoduo enormously popular in China. Mounting pressure will squeeze the long tail of retail media networks.

Providing such support often forces consumers to make trade-offs, such as skipping meals or not buying groceries. Indeed, cost pressures have led nearly 1 in 5 adults to receive food or household goods from a food bank, stop buying healthier foods, and/or trade down to cheaper or different medications over the past 12 months.

A demo video showed a visually impaired woman navigating a grocery store with assistance from the glasses. Future consumer use cases: If the technology makes its way into a mainstream Meta product, it could be used as a health-focused wearable or offer remote assistance with tasks.

Tariff’s effect on essentials like groceries and gas means budget-stretched consumers who do keep paying with credit may exacerbate already elevated delinquency levels. What they’re saying: Credit card issuers remain positive that they can withstand any tariff headwinds. JPMorgan Chase COO Jennifer Piepszak said the bank is "cautiously optimistic" at a Bank of America conference.

This could significantly impact traffic to home goods and grocery stores. AI concierge services for high-touch purchases will take off. Dedicated agents on brand landing pages and higher-touch product pages will help consumers find what they need.

Grocery-oriented retailers will fare better than most. Walmart, Costco, and Kroger ecommerce sales will grow faster than average, since most food, beverage, and household essentials are sourced domestically. Consumers will continue to prioritize spending on these categories even as they cut back in other areas.

Supermarkets are winning the UK loyalty race with member pricing. Supermarkets dominate the UK loyalty landscape. In January 2024, 67% of UK consumers were members of a supermarket loyalty program, up from 56% in 2022, per Mando-Connect and YouGov.

The assistant, powered by Anthropic, will be able to analyze images, create smart home routines, and execute tasks like purchasing concert tickets or ordering groceries. The limitations: Delays for an Alexa+ release—it was originally announced in 2023—were partly due to challenges with cost-effectiveness and problems integrating with third-party services and devices.

The category includes groceries as well as health and beauty products. Grocery product ecommerce penetration is 9.6%. But because of the massive share of wallet, the value of goods sold online in grocery this year—C$19.63 billion ($14.54 billion)—rivals the sales of some of the highest-penetrated categories.

Alcohol brands face a daunting challenge in the crowded aisles of grocery stores: capturing shoppers’ attention amidst a sea of competing products. They manage hundreds to thousands of active items sold across millions of stores worldwide.

Likewise, disinflation in non-grocery categories and extensive rollbacks helped Walmart report its second-straight quarter of positive general merchandise sales.  However, Target’s efforts to woo shoppers with sales and price cuts on thousands of items fell flat as customers prioritized lower-margin essentials like groceries over discretionary categories such as apparel and home goods.

With its wide selection of goods from grocery to furniture, a Walmart Supercenter would make the most sense to join Dick’s Sporting Goods, Macy’s, and JCPenney as an anchor store. Walmart could place smaller formats, like its Neighborhood Market store, throughout the mall for shoppers seeking a quick in-and-out experience.