Bulk Buying: A New Consumer Trend?
Over the past few years, bulk buying has established itself as a convincing alternative to excessive packaging. While the bulk market was worth only €100 million in 2013, six years later it had exceeded €1 billion in revenue. There appears to be genuine enthusiasm for bulk buying, which is attracting both consumers and manufacturers.
A new way of consuming
In 2020, a study conducted by Nielsen showed that adopting consumption habits that reduce packaging was the top New Year’s resolution among French people (27%), ahead of exercising more (21%) and buying healthier products (22%). Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of packaging-related issues and are trying to address them by changing the way they shop.
Consumers becoming “consumer-actors”
Almost half of French people said they had already bought products in bulk during the previous twelve months, according to a 2019 Kantar survey. While people under 35 remain the biggest consumers of bulk products, the trend is attracting an increasingly broad audience.
Bulk buying is particularly popular among environmentally conscious “consumer-actors”: consumers who have already switched to organic, sustainable or locally produced food. However, more and more people are also adopting bulk shopping. It no longer appeals only to affluent young urban consumers. People over 65, families and those living in rural areas have also become regular bulk shoppers.
More bulk formats and retail outlets
The growing number of consumers has also been accompanied by a significant expansion of bulk retail options in France. While there were only two dedicated bulk grocery stores in 2013, this figure had risen to nearly 400 by 2020.
Specialist bulk stores are not the only players involved in this new way of shopping. The Day by Day network, a franchise dedicated entirely to bulk products, now operates nearly 59 stores. Organic shops were also pioneers in this area, while supermarkets, recognising the popularity of the trend, have adapted and now account for almost 50% of the French bulk market.
The growing number of retail outlets has therefore helped bulk shopping develop and reach consumers for whom access to this type of shopping was much more difficult only a few years ago.
Bulk buying is not just about almonds
The diversification of products available in bulk is another important part of this trend. Nuts and oilseeds still account for 58% of purchases, while more and more French consumers now buy pasta and rice in bulk, representing respectively 24% and 23% of bulk purchases. New product categories are also becoming available.
Coffee, sugar, olive oil, pet food and even wine: the range of food products available in bulk continues to expand.
At the same time, bulk retail is increasingly developing for non-food products such as detergents and cosmetics. Liquid household products, particularly laundry detergent and washing-up liquid, are becoming increasingly popular among bulk shoppers. The first store specialising entirely in liquid bulk products has even opened in Paris.
Persistent barriers
Price
Does buying in bulk really save money?
The Réseau Vrac association states that a product bought in bulk is generally 10% to 15% cheaper than the same product sold in packaging. However, this comparison is often complicated by the fact that many bulk products are organic and therefore naturally more expensive. They are often higher-quality products that already have a higher initial price.
For products such as detergents or laundry products, comparing prices with the conventional bottles sold in supermarkets can also be difficult. One reason is that bulk laundry detergent may be sold by weight, making it harder to compare with products usually priced by volume.
Bulk retailers also emphasise the efficiency of their detergents, arguing that although they may be more expensive to purchase initially, their final cost per use can be lower than conventional bottled alternatives.
Hygiene
COVID-19 highlighted an issue that already existed in the bulk retail sector: hygiene and cleanliness. Among French consumers who stopped buying in bulk after the beginning of the health crisis, 21% said they did so because they did not trust the system because of the virus, while 13% considered bulk shopping insufficiently hygienic.
This is an issue for both consumers and professionals.
Consumers need to feel confident about the cleanliness and freshness of bulk dispensers, which must be cleaned regularly, particularly when they contain fresh products such as yoghurt or ice cream.
Without protective packaging, customers must also be able to trust the quality and freshness of the products they are buying.
Bulk retailers themselves also need protection when it comes to hygiene concerns. If a problem arises with a customer, the retailer must be able to demonstrate that the dispensers were properly cleaned and maintained.
Similarly, when customers bring their own containers, can a retailer safely fill a container whose cleanliness cannot be guaranteed? Bulk retailers can therefore find themselves in a difficult position with two options: refuse the customer’s container because they cannot verify its cleanliness, or wash it in-store to avoid being held responsible for any potential hygiene issue.
As with cups in the workplace, removing packaging and plastic from our consumption habits often creates challenges related to hygiene and cleaning.
If retailers had the ability to clean their customers’ containers quickly and effectively, this could help expand the use of bulk shopping even further, while reassuring both customers and retailers about hygiene concerns.
