Pumpkin Spice Powers Profits: Grocery Shoppers Continue to Splurge on Seasonal Favorites

New York, NY and Ft. Lauderdale, FL — October 2, 2024 – Incisiv, a next-generation industry insights firm that helps retailers and brands navigate digital disruption, and Wynshop, the leading provider of digital commerce and fulfillment solutions for local store-based retailers, today released Grocery Doppio’s October 2024 Market Pulse report, “Pumpkin Spice Powers Grocery Profits.”

This month’s survey asked 1,266 digital grocery shoppers and 113 grocery executives for their predictions on seasonal specialty flavors like pumpkin spice, Halloween shopping trends and sales tactics. Report highlights include:

The pumpkin spice effect wins again:

• Grocers anticipate an 8.4% increase in pumpkin-flavored products this year, as compared to 2023.

• While just 4% of store merchandise are considered to be “fall products,” that represents an average increase of 13 products/store from last year.

• 1 in 8 shoppers purchase at least one seasonal product every autumn. They do so to celebrate tradition (86%), due to limited availability (71%), to enjoy unique flavors (64%) and simply to try something new (53%).

Despite economic worries, shoppers are enthusiastic about Halloween:

• 61% of shoppers say that they will spend as much or more than they did last year on Halloween shopping.

• 57% of shoppers say that inflation has not affected their Fall shopping budgets.

• While 69% of shoppers intend to spend about the same on candy as they did last year, more than 23% intend to up their spend for this Halloween’s festivities.

Grocers are leaning into promotions and deals:

• 79% of grocers believe that shoppers are actively searching for promotional deals to guide their purchases.

• 66% of grocers say they will increase their volume of promotions and deals in Q4.

“Shoppers are drawn to pumpkin-flavored products by nostalgia, novelty, and scarcity,” said Gaurav Pant, Chief Insights Officer of both Incisiv and Grocery Doppio. “Grocers can take advantage of the so-called ‘pumpkin spice effect’ to generate buzz in store, create novel shopping experiences online, and to increase October sales across the board.”

“For grocery retailers, fall is a prime opportunity to boost sales through pumpkin-flavored and other seasonal products,” said Charlie Kaplan, Chief Product Officer of Wynshop. “Shoppers are drawn to these flavors to feel connected with tradition, and because of their limited-time availability, they create a sense of urgency and excitement. Grocers can tap into this enthusiasm to drive impulse purchases and strengthen customer engagement throughout the season.”

Grocery Doppio’s monthly Market Pulse reports are amongst the many resources available on Grocery Doppio, a free, independent source of grocery insights and data designed to help grocers jumpstart, accelerate, and sustain digital growth. Grocery Doppio brings together research-driven grocery content, fact-based observations, and industry expert perspectives, to help identify improvement opportunities for grocery retailers.

Download Grocery Doppio’s October 2024 Market Pulse: “Pumpkin Spice Powers Grocery Profits”.

About Incisiv 

Incisiv is a next-generation industry insights firm that helps retailers and brands navigate digital disruption in their industry. Incisiv offers consumer industry executives responsible for digital transformation a trusted platform to share and learn in a non-competitive setting, and the tools necessary to improve digital maturity, impact, and profitability. More information is available at www.incisiv.com. 

About Wynshop 

Wynshop is an ambitious team of digital innovators helping grocers and other local store-based retailers grow wildly successful online businesses. Wynshop’s easy-to-use digital commerce platform enables efficient in-house picking, reduces fulfillment costs, and uses advanced AI to help retailers personalize the entire digital shopping experience and remain profitable. Learn more at  www.wynshop.com.

Media Contact:

Laurel Getz
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203.767.5963