What US Marketplace Leaders Can Learn From International Retailers as They Rally Behind Plant-Based
Written by: Annie Taranshansky
Retailers all around Europe are putting plant-based foods front and center in recent efforts to connect consumers with healthy and sustainable grocery options. Retailers and Operators as marketplace leaders can play a large role in influencing consumer purchasing decisions, determining important factors such as the placement of products throughout the store through to their price tag. As European retailers pledge and subsequently activate their commitments to key health and sustainability goals, we’re seeing exciting results emerging from the international marketplace.
Does Placement Really Matter?
In partnership with Wageningen University and the World Resources Institute, German retailer Lidl recently embarked on a campaign to trial plant-based meat placement throughout their store, answering for themselves whether the findability of plant-based meat influences its overall total sales. What they found? After piloting the program in 70 different branches across the Netherlands over the course of six months, placing plant-based meat next to its animal-based counterparts conclusively increased sales by 7%. After also trialing a price decrease of its private-label plant-based product line, Lidl has confirmed insights PBFA recently identified in our 2023 Plant-Based State of the Marketplace report: Consumer demand for plant-based foods is unwavering, with shoppers actively seeking and purchasing plant-based foods when factors of findability and affordability are not a barrier.
In a conversation with Green Queen, Monique van der Meer, a researcher at Wageningen University shared, “This [study] showed, among other things, that most customers generally think the placement of meat substitutes on the meat shelf is a good idea.”
These results are supported by the PBFA and Kroger Plant-Based Meat Study, conducted from December of 2019 to February of 2020 in partnership with leading grocery retailer Kroger. In the study, refrigerated plant-based meat was placed alongside animal-based meat across 60 stores within the United States. The study unearthed a similar result to Lidl’s, with sales of plant-based meat increasing by an average of 23% over the trial period. These consistent findings can help grocery retailers better understand their everyday shopper, and aid in creating useful merchandising that easily guides plant-curious consumers from entry into the store to the point of sale.
Plant-Based Foods Thrive in a Level Playing Field
Beyond trialing placement, a handful of European retailers have also made promises to promote price parity for plant-based foods. As mentioned earlier, in an effort to help meet its climate goals, Lidl recently introduced price parity for its private-label plant-based brand – in the hopes of increasing the proportion of plant-based protein sources in its German stores by 20% and plant-based dairy by 10% by 2030. But Lidl isn’t the only retailer making this exciting step. Austria’s BILLA announced price reductions for its plant-based food line Vegavita, resulting in a 33% increase of sales for price-reduced plant-based items. With such promising results, BILLA has pledged to set the same price level for future plant-based products as that of their animal-based counterparts. Additionally, Ahold Delhaize brand Albert Heijn has committed to achieve a proportion of 60% plant-based to 40% animal-based protein sales by 2030, also in efforts to reach sustainability goals. And Dutch supermarket Jumbo made the bold decision to stop promoting animal-based meat in hopes of encouraging a favorable transition to a plant-based diet, citing “deplorable living conditions” of animals raised for feed – even now looking into developing their own line of plant-based meat products.
How Retailers Can Succeed Alongside Their Consumers
Price parity for plant-based foods is a hot button issue in the United States. Animal-based foods are made artificially cheap by government subsidies. Subsidies that support industrial animal agriculture also disincentivize stakeholders at every level of the food system, farmers to consumers, from engaging with plant-based – despite the overwhelming economic opportunity that a plant-based food system has to offer. In a bold report, the World Bank recently suggested that world economies should account for the planetary cost of animal-based products by raising their prices to reflect their evidenced negative impact on our climate. As the latest shopper data demonstrates, 50% of Kroger shoppers are concerned about climate change, with 29% seeking out sustainable products, and 22% saying sustainability is very important when choosing which products to purchase.
If governments and retailers alike invest in plant-based foods, we can realize the full potential of a plant-based foods industry and give consumers the opportunity to choose values-aligned options without the barrier of price or placement – whether motivated by sustainability, health, animal welfare, taste, or preference. We are thrilled to see this wave of plant-forward initiatives trending across Europe’s largest retailers, and look forward to seeing further positive outcomes as international marketplaces harmonize the interests of both business and consumer. With marketplace buy-in of increasing plant-based consumption, our global food system moves one step closer to achieving the triple bottom line that preserves the dignity and health of people, planet, and animals.