Behaviors like stockpiling cleaning supplies and pantry products are likely to stay post-pandemic, predicts Instacart in its Beyond the Cart: A Year of Essential Insights report, which uses recent survey data from The Harris Poll to outline the current and future landscape of online grocery shopping.
According to the report, 51 percent of consumers plan to keep hand sanitizer, hand soap, or disinfectant wipes on hand. In addition, 29 percent of consumers said learning how to stock the pantry and/or refrigerator was an important lesson this past year, as were learning to meal plan/prep (25 percent), how to enjoy leftovers (31 percent), and how to store leftovers (22 percent).
The survey also found that there may be a post-pandemic healthy eating surge, as 36 percent of Americans said they’ve learned to eat more healthfully in the past year.
Pricing and promotions could also continue to be important after the pandemic, said Instacart. Thirty-six percent of Harris Poll respondents said that how to save money on groceries is also among the food lessons they’ve learned in the past year.
"More than a year of pandemic living has dramatically reshaped how American households shop for groceries and other household essentials," said Laurentia Romaniuk, Instacart's trends expert and senior product manager, in a statement. "As we analyzed twelve months of data from Instacart, we discovered that the pandemic has driven seismic demographic shifts in who is using online grocery, altered daily and weekly shopping rhythms, set off a wave of customer gratitude for the Instacart shopper community, and more. As the world inches toward normality, it appears that many of the new habits formed in the midst of the pandemic may actually be driving a permanent shift in how consumers shop."
Related: Instacart Gives Employees Vaccine Support Stipend; Instacart Reveals Grocery Predictions for Next Year.
Image: Instacart