Millennial Avocado Market Basket Study

HAB’s 2019 Millennial Avocado Market Basket study has received much interest and trade coverage since it’s release earlier in 2019. We are seeing just how important this marketing segment is for the avocado industry; Millennial shoppers are quickly becoming a driving force in the overall retail marketplace, and retailers and merchandisers are taking notice.

As Millennials enter the next stage of their lives, they’re starting families and expanding their purchasing power. As Millennial purchasing power grows, so does their appetite for fresh produce, specifically avocados.

But what else do these Millennial shoppers pick up when they are at the retail location and that avocado –or that bag of avocados– goes into their shopping cart? Well, it turns out that the majority of what goes into that basket is MORE PRODUCE, making these shoppers even MORE important to your retail produce buyers and merchandisers. It will be key for the retailer that you are calling to recognize how important the Millennial segment is – and how it can drive more purchases of the 11 other items that most frequently fall into their cart.

The chart below shows cross promotion opportunities; retailers would benefit from merchandising to these trends to help put even more produce into the carts of these incredibly important shoppers.

Top Trip Incidence Categories When Avocados are in the Basket (click the chart to enlarge)

Chart: Top Trip Incidence Categories When Avocados are in the Basket

Data Source: IRI Consumer NetworkTM 2018 (All figures are rounded)
*Affinity index measures which items were more likely to be found with avocados than was expected.

Some items to note:

  • Eleven of the top 20 most often found items in the avocado market basket are fresh produce items.
  • All items in the top 20 have strong affinity indexes, indicating that these items showed up in avocado market baskets significantly more often than was expected.
  • Icons highlight the 10 categories in the top 20 that have the strongest affinity indexes, 9 of which were fresh produce categories.

So there you have it – Millennial avocado shoppers are picking up bananas, tomatoes, berries, lettuce and more, making them a high value segment – and sure fire reason to promote avocados even more!

Read the full Millennial Avocado Market Basket study part II and action guide

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