If you’ve been following the food landscape, you know that grocery-prepared foods are taking center stage.
With busy lifestyles and a growing desire for convenience, more consumers are turning to grocery stores for ingredients and ready-to-eat meals.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the top meal trends shaping the grocery-prepared foods space. We’ll also dive into some essential grocerant management tools that can help you optimize your offerings and run your entire store, like an all-in-one point of sale (POS) system.
Ready to level up your prepared foods game and meet your customers’ needs?
Understanding Grocery Prepared Foods
Grocery-prepared foods are meals or ingredients that are ready to eat or require minimal preparation. This includes everything from freshly made sandwiches and salads to fully cooked meals that customers can grab off the shelf and enjoy at home.
With more consumers seeking convenience without sacrificing quality, grocery stores are increasingly seen as a one-stop shop for everything, including quick and delicious meals.
Why should you offer grocery-prepared foods? Here are five reasons.
- Increased foot traffic: When you offer fresh, high-quality meals, your store becomes a destination for more than just groceries. A robust prepared foods section can help attract customers seeking a quick meal solution, driving traffic to your store outside traditional shopping hours.
- Higher sales: Grocery-prepared foods provide a high-margin opportunity for grocery stores. With minimal preparation required from customers, they’re willing to pay a premium for convenience, allowing you to generate more revenue per square foot.
- Convenience: We’ve touched on this already, but as customers balance busy lives, they increasingly turn to grocery stores for prepared meals that are easy to take home.
- Customer satisfaction: Offering a wide variety of fresh, high-quality meals can improve customer satisfaction. Providing a range of meal options for different tastes and dietary needs makes it easier for customers to get what they want when they need it.
- Major differentiator: Having a high-quality, well-managed prepared foods section can set your store apart from competitors who may only offer pre-packaged or frozen meals. It allows you to build a loyal customer base that values fresh and convenient offerings.
The key components of a successful prepared foods section are variety, quality, and freshness. Offering a diverse selection of fresh, high-quality meals to meet customer preferences, including dietary restrictions (vegan, gluten-free, etc.), will help build a loyal customer base that shares the gospel about your products.
5 Meal Trends Influencing Grocery Prepared Foods
As grocery-prepared foods become more popular, certain meal trends are shaping what customers want. 54% of consumers say they buy grocery-prepared foods because of the variety and convenience. Here are the top five trends to watch.
Trend 1: Health-Conscious Options
Consumers are more health-conscious than ever and want their grocery store meals to reflect that. Popular trends include:
- Plant-based and organic meals: Offering plant-based and clean options, like vegan bowls and organic salads, is a great way to cater to a growing segment of health-minded customers.
- Low-carb and keto-friendly: With low-carb diets like keto continuing to rise in popularity, customers are seeking meals that align with these lifestyles.
Trend 2: Global Flavors
Global cuisine is gaining traction as customers explore new and exciting flavors.
- Ethnic cuisines: Mexican, Mediterranean, and Asian dishes are becoming staples in grocery stores. From tacos and hummus to sushi and pad Thai, offering a variety of ethnic meals can help set your store apart.
- Fusion foods: Customers love creative takes on classic dishes. Consider offering fusion meals that blend flavors from different cultures, like Korean BBQ tacos or Italian-inspired sushi rolls.
Trend 3: Sustainable Practices
More consumers are becoming environmentally conscious, and they want to support brands that share their values:
- Eco-friendly packaging: Offering recyclable, biodegradable, or compostable packaging is a win for your customers and the environment.
- Locally sourced ingredients: Highlight meals made with locally sourced produce and meats. This will appeal to environmentally aware customers and support local farmers and businesses.
Trend 4: Customization and Personalization
Today’s consumers want more control over their meals. Cater to their tastes with:
- Build-your-own meal options: Create stations or meal kits where customers can select ingredients and build their own meals, like salads, grain bowls, or pasta dishes. A modern POS can help with quick-service order modifications.
- Dietary preferences and allergen awareness: Clearly label your meals to indicate whether they are gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, etc., making it easier for customers with dietary restrictions to shop and dine with confidence.
Trend 5: Meal Kits and Easy-Prep Solutions
Convenience is king, and meal kits are the perfect solution for busy families:
- Convenience-focused meal kits: Offer customers meal kits with pre-chopped ingredients and simple instructions for easy, quick preparation and cooking at home.
- Take-and-make meals: Think "take and bake" pizzas, pasta, or pre-marinated meats that customers can pop in the oven.
- Frozen meals: For customers who prefer to stock up, offer frozen versions of your prepared meals that they can warm up in a pinch.
Now that you’re familiar with the trends, let’s talk about the tools to make it happen.
Grocerant Management Tools To Optimize Prepared Foods
Managing a grocery-prepared foods section requires smart tools that make keeping everything fresh, organized, and profitable easier.
Inventory Management Systems
Keep track of what’s in stock and set reorder thresholds when supplies get low. This is crucial for reducing waste and maximizing profits.
A POS system like Markt POS will help you monitor stock levels and track the freshness of ingredients and meals. Knowing what’s in stock and reordering appropriately will help reduce waste, avoid over-ordering, and improve your margins.
Markt POS will also help with mix and match pricing, online grocery, customer loyalty, deli scale integrations, and more.
Check out our build and price tool to find a solution for your store.
Sales Analytics Tools
Understanding your customers’ preferences is key to offering the right products.
An analytics tool will help you identify and track top-selling items, helping you stock more of what your customers demand. Markt POS provides complete reports on store performance, sales reports, and more.
Marketing Platforms
Once you understand what grocery-prepared foods you’ll sell, promote them!
Use social media to showcase fresh meals, seasonal specials, and new menu items. You could also run social media ads, create an email newsletter, or offer in-store promotions to inform customers about your offerings.
Finally, reward devoted customers with a loyalty program using discounts or exclusive offers to encourage repeat visits.
Related read: Grocery Store Marketing: 5 Creative Ideas for Your Next Campaign
Testimonial: Successful Grocery Prepared Foods Sections
One example of a small grocery store that’s mastered the art of prepared foods is Captain Marden’s Seafoods. They've built a loyal customer base by offering a carefully curated selection of fresh, high-quality seafood meals and successfully integrated prepared foods into their business model.
Their favorite feature is the ability to track real-time inventory and sales through their POS system, which allows them to easily manage fresh products and prepared meals.
Managing Grocery-Prepared Foods With Markt POS
Grocery-prepared food is a popular trend that isn’t going away soon. Offering a variety of high-quality, convenient meals is a surefire way to increase foot traffic, drive sales, and build customer loyalty. Managing these offerings requires the right tools — from inventory tracking to marketing.
With a robust grocerant management tool like Markt POS, you can simplify and optimize every aspect of your prepared foods section, from tracking freshness to understanding customer preferences.
Schedule a demo to learn more about how Markt POS can improve your grocerant operations.
