Research

What is the Certified Plant Based Seal?

Plant-based food products are no longer just a trend – they are here to stay in an industry that is growing incrementally each day. FMI’s Power of Meat 2019 report finds that plant-based meat alternatives sales increased 19.2% last year and account ...

Grocery Productivity Numbers to Watch

We’ve been tracking operational benchmarks for more than seven decades, but we’ve now witnessed significant shifts in business investments in the last several years. The number of SKUs might ebb and flow, but we find certainty in how retailers will ...

Mark Your Calendars: Special Days During the Holidays

In the spirit of Giving Tuesday, I encourage you to donate to the FMI Foundation, a 501(c)3 charitable organization that supports research and education in the areas of food safety, nutrition, and health. Here are some of our 2019 successes that ...

Health and Well-Being: The Best Trend for Grocery Store Sales

No matter the food trend consumers desire, food retailers responding to The Food Retailing Industry Speaks 2019 report see consumers’ focus on health and well-being as having a positive impact on their business strategy....

Consumers Boost Engagement With Private Brands

Momentum for private brands continues to build, according to the latest FMI report based on IRI data. The 2019 edition of FMI’s Power of Private Brands: From the Consumer finds that food retail private brands are advancing in several ...

The Grocery Store Continues to Be A Community Cornerstone

According to The Food Retailing Industry Speaks 2019 report, 93% of grocers who responded to the survey use community support and ties as a service differentiation strategy and 73% see it as successful—the highest of any strategy. These stats make ...

Steps to Seamless Omnichannel Shopping

FMI has partnered with FitForCommerce, a boutique consultancy firm specializing in ecommerce and omnichannel retail, on the 2019 Grocery Omnichannel Index. After mystery-shopping 26 U.S. food retailer’s online grocery shopping experiences and ...

The Story Behind FMI’s Grocery Industry Benchmarking Research, Now 70 Years Old

This year marks the 70th anniversary of The Food Retailing Industry Speaks report. Throughout the decades, this research has documented important benchmarks and facts and figures of food retailers and wholesalers. The report’s value can be measured ...

New Jobs in The Grocery Industry

The Food Retailing Industry Speaks 2019 report asked food retailers to share their plans for labor investments over the next two years. Here are some of the new jobs you can expect to see in the grocery ...

How Grocers Are Investing in Technology

The rapid evolution and implementation of technology in food retail can boost performance on the operational side and enhance engagement on the customer-facing front, not to mention the growing role of ecommerce. Let’s look at some of the ways that ...

Food Retailers Develop Free Hepatitis A Resource to Protect Public Health

The FMI Food Protection Committee (FPC) published the Hepatitis A Information Guide for Food Retail. This resource aims to protect public health and reduce the likelihood of foodborne illness by answering common questions regarding food safety, ...

Speaks 2019: How Can You Benefit?

Based on response to the 2019 The Food Retailing Industry Speaks survey, food retailers are moving forward with proactive strategies to navigate the barriers and embrace new opportunities. As part of this process, food retailers are learning how to ...

Speaks 2019: Success Despite or Because of Challenges

What did the 70th version of Speaks reveal? It paints the picture of a resilient industry continuing to address the diverse range of challenges confronting it. Some of the hurdles are old and familiar, such as growing interchange fees and rising ...

Loyalty Programs: Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All About You

Thirty years later shoppers are still sharing data with their grocery store, privacy is still a concern, and there is a limit to the willingness of shoppers to share personal information for specific benefits. According to the 2019 U.S. Grocery ...

How Is Online Shopping Changing Grocery Shopping?

This year’s U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends report takes a deep dive into the growing world of online shopping and explores how the evolving ecommerce world is changing how Americans shop for food and how that may impact food retailers. On the surface, ...