Bulk shopping is high on ethnic grocery baskets
Ethnic shoppers are doing a lot of their grocery buying in bulk through multiples, ethnic cash & carry’s and club retailers such as Macro & Costco. Brands who do big business with the retail players need to keep this top of mind when targeting Asian, Chinese & Arab audiences- especially if they wish to ramp up sales.
The recent survey of more than 4,000 ethnic shoppers in Leicester, Birmingham and London was designed to understand more clearly what influences ethnic shoppers (value, choice and convenience), how do they buy, number of visits a week, and how much do they spend.
Ethnic shoppers are considered a niche group of 20% but the fact the buy in bulk and in large quantity making their shopping spend equivalent to 50% of total UK grocery spend on food as they on average buy 2 and a half times of the mainstream spending average. Therefore marketing to ethnic shoppers in certain region or catchment area can be significantly higher than the general market at cost much less and more profitable.
Food manufacturers are advised to engage with ethnic shoppers and develop custom marketing campaigns targeting these bulk buyers nationally or regionally. The survey revealed the stores priorities and range varies at different area especially those regions with large ethnic presence.
