This week, Vegan Women Summit (VWS) – the organization dedicated to empowering women in the industry – hosted VWS Deep Dive: Plant-based Consumer Trends, the first-of-its-kind expert panel with grocery and food delivery platforms Instacart and Deliveroo, revealing breaking insights on the plant-based industry.
“Half of the UK population are expected to have a flexitarian diet by 2025” – Elena Devis, Deliveroo
The global on-demand delivery experts revealed that over 50% of Deliveroo orders now contain vegan grocery items and one-third of Instacart purchases include a vegan dairy or meat item. The vegan category on Deliveroo has grown 107% in the past year on its platform and is the fastest growing area of growth.
The Importance of Search Terms
The eye-opening insights on the plant-based industry show how consumer interest in vegan products is rapidly rising globally across grocery and delivery platforms. Interestingly, global data across Deliveroo and Instacart platforms show how the search term ‘vegan’ dominates over others such as ‘plant-based’ or ‘meatless’, with ‘vegan’ being used five times more often than ‘plant-based’. Brands were implored to prioritize labeling to assist with indexing and categorization of their products so consumers can better find them
The experts at the VWS Deep Dive event were Laurentia Romaniuk, Trends Expert at California-based Instacart, and Elena Devis, Vegan Category Lead at UK-based Deliveroo. As well as sharing that one-third of all Instacart consumers have purchased a vegan dairy or meat item, Laurentia Romaniuk also added that plant-based milk continues to be the dominant purchase of choice.
“When certain big cultural events occur, like the release of Seaspiracy, we see it reflected in consumer demands,” – Laurentia Romaniuk, Instacart
The extent to which cultural influences drive significant plant-based consumer product demand on the delivery platforms was also revealed. Documentaries such as Seaspiracy, campaigns like Veganuary, celebrities going vegan – Lizzo for example, or even viral recipes on social media are all major drivers for plant-based demand. The experts also stressed the demand for brands to focus on their online presence, with plant-based consumers seeking out online presence and “brand authenticity”, as demand for online delivery is expected to continue post-pandemic.
“During our Veganuary partnership, 50% of Deliveroo grocery orders contained vegan items, while 35% of fine-dining restaurant orders contained vegan items,” added Elena Devis.
