Published on March 19, 2021

with Ransom Hawley, CEO and Colleen Martin, VP Insight Solutions

Topics Covered:

???? Key data points on Amazon prime shoppers you won’t find anywhere else, including prime membership numbers and demographic characteristics

???? Amazon Subscribe & Save program insights: Who’s using it, how they shop, and what they’re buying

???? Spending insights by category

???? Where else Amazon Prime members are shopping for grocery purchases

???? Key takeaways for retailers/e-tailers and brands

Livestream on March 16, 2021

*Disclaimer: all data presented is owned by CaddleⓇ and has a Margin of Error of 1% or lower.

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Published on March 11, 2021

One year later: New report suggests the pandemic has had little or no impact on how satisfied Canadians are with food industry.

The Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, in partnership with Caddle, released a new report about consumer confidence on our food industry, one year after the pandemic began. At the end of February 2021, a total of 10,005 Canadians were surveyed on confidence and satisfaction of the food industry. Results, overall, were quite positive for the food industry.

“A lot of people are struggling right now, whether it’s physical or mental,” says Sylvain Charlebois. “(It’s) important for the industry to think about being a partner for Canadians in their journey to a better self.”

Director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, Sylvain Charlebois, breaks down the findings on National Post.

*Disclaimer: all data presented is owned by CaddleⓇ and has a Margin of Error of 1% or lower.

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Published on February 26, 2021

Did you know?

While Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal are considered to be gateway cities for newcomers to Canada, other communities across the country pull far above their weight in bringing immigrants into their folds. This includes cities like Charlottetown, P.E.I. and Regina, Saskatchewan, both of which welcomed 2.4% of their total per capita populations in 2019.

It’s little wonder, then, that stores across the country offer a wide array of international food products that cater to a range of Canadians—from the newly immigrated to second- and third-generation residents and otherwise.

How does the South & Southeast Asian population differ in grocery habits compared to the general population?

Let’s explore the key levers that drive Canadian consumers’ decision-making on international and specialty foods.

Specifically, we dive deeper into the shopping patterns and preferences of South Asian and Southeast Asian Canadian consumers, to uncover how two retail banner extensions—T&T Supermarket (a Loblaw’s company) and Voilà by Sobeys (the new online grocery arm of Empire, currently being tested in 3 markets)—deliver against purchase drivers including selection, price and quality to influence share of wallet of ethnic populations. Finally, we review our In-Store Grocery CX Tracker data—where we outlined the Net Promoter Scores (NPS) and associated attributes for 12 of the top grocery retail banners across the country—to shed additional light on how well these banners are meeting the particular needs of Canada’s South and Southeast Asian consumers.

Haven’t downloaded your free copy of Caddle’s cross-generational comparison of retail chains and their associated Net Promoter Scores (NPS)? View here!

*Disclaimer: all data presented is owned by CaddleⓇ and has a Margin of Error of 1% or lower.

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Published on February 17, 2021

With the pandemic still impacting many consumer decisions, Caddle wonders if Canadians’ beauty routines are being neglected.

With this in mind, how can beauty brands catch the Canadian consumers’ eye among the cosmetic aisle? Could vegan cosmetics be the answer?

Since 2020,

Caddle discovered there has been heightened awareness of personal health and wellbeing, prompting better exercise and dietary choices among Canadians.

Veganuary has inspired and supported more than one million people in 192 countries to try vegan for January – and beyond. Since its launch in 2014, the number of people taking part has risen dramatically year on year. In 2021,a record-breaking 582,538 people around the world pledged to eat only vegan food in January. With demand for plant-based foods on the rise, is this trend of veganism seeping into other consumer product categories beyond food?

According to Statista, the global vegan cosmetics market is projected to grow 6.3 percent a year, reaching $26.4 billion CAD ($20.8 billion USD) by 2025.>

Specifically in Canada, the cosmetics market is projected to reach revenue of $2 billion CAD ($1.6 billion USD) by 2025.

Is this trend towards vegan diets translating to other product categories too? Are consumers choosing vegan beauty products? Caddle examines the clean beauty industry and wonders if a new year means more consumer demand for cruelty-free/vegan products.

Cruelty-free labelled products come second to last in consideration, suggesting that although veganism as a diet is on the rise, vegan cosmetics may require further education for the everyday consumer. However, despite cruelty-free being low on the list of consumers’ consideration set, 40% of Canadian consumers do currently use products labelled cruelty-free. What’s more, 58% of consumers believe having cruelty-free personal care products and cosmetics is “somewhat important/very important”. 

Now that we know there is demand in the vegan beauty industry, what do consumers actually want?

Face lotion/skincare and shampoo/conditioner are tied for first place as the top product categories consumers are likely to purchase that are labelled cruelty-free. So, if product line expansion is on your brand’s horizon, creating products that are in these categories will have the highest adoption rate from consumers looking to veganize their beauty routines.

Key takeaways:

1. The most important factor when choosing makeup products is quality, followed closely by price and brand, whether it’s cruelty-free or not.

2. There is demand yet to be captured in the cruelty-free beauty industry, with 58% of consumers who believe having cruelty-free personal care products and cosmetics is “somewhat important/very important”.

3. Face lotion/skincare and shampoo/conditioner are the top product categories consumers are likely to purchase in the future that is labelled cruelty-free.

*Disclaimer: all data presented is owned by CaddleⓇ and has a Margin of Error of 1% or lower.

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Published on February 10, 2021

*Disclaimer: all data presented is owned by CaddleⓇ and has a Margin of Error of 1% or lower.

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Published on February 8, 2021

Caddle unveils new partnership with Dalhousie University by presenting exclusive Food Literacy Report. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab and Ransom Hawley from Caddle, the largest daily insights panel in Canada, discuss the value of rapid access to consumer insights and data analytics to forecast trends and influence changes in production and processing for our agri-food sector.

We cover:  

• Latest advancements and best practices in capturing this data
• Case studies of the impact of using the data analytics to predict and pivot.
• Exclusive findings on Canadians’ current food literacy,
• How COVID-19 has impacted our food knowledge and decisions in the last year.

Discover the latest advancements and best practices in capturing this data and hear case studies of the impact of using the data analytics to predict and pivot. Caddle shares exclusive findings on Canadians’ current food literacy, and how COVID-19 has impacted our food knowledge and decisions in the last year.

Director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, Sylvain Charlebois, also breaks down the findings on Global News. Caddle has been featured on Canadian Grocer, Q107, and MSN.

*Disclaimer: all data presented is owned by CaddleⓇ and has a Margin of Error of 1% or lower.

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Published on February 1, 2021

Caddle is launching our eagerly-awaited comprehensive report on Cannabis: Cultivating Success in the Canadian Cannabis Business 

What’s inside: 

• How consumers perceive cannabis
• Deep insights into consumer need states 
• The next big cannabis retail opportunity
• and much more!

Are you looking for insights on the Canadian Cannabis market? Is your company in need of innovation? How does your Cannabis brand stand out amongst competition?

Engage with 18,000+ monthly active cannabis users (including 6,000+ daily active cannabis consumers) and get the insights you need to make decisions, faster! See details about our 18,000+ Cannabis Panel here. 

*Disclaimer: all data presented is owned by CaddleⓇ and has a Margin of Error of 1% or lower. 

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Published on January 14, 2021

Due to high demand, we turned this into a white paper! Download the free report here.

Growing from a Bellevue, Washington garage–based online marketplace to a worldwide omnichannel eCommerce behemoth in about 25 years is no mean feat. But leave it to former Wall Street executive and “richest man in modern history” Jeff Bezos to make it happen.

In 2019, the omnichannel powerhouse was responsible for close to half of all eCommerce dollars in a high-spending U.S. market. What’s more, the company registered its most profitable quarter ever in the three months ended September 30, 2020, as North American revenues increased by 39% YOY amidst the pandemic-driven surge in online shopping. Meanwhile, quarterly net income reached a whopping $6.33 billion (an increase of 196.7% over Q3-2019). 

A core group of Amazon shopping devotees contributes to this massive revenue haul—with an average of more than 200 million unique visitors to Amazon sites each month (for comparison, that’s near-equivalent to the population of Brazil, the fifth most populous country in the world). 

But it’s the estimated 150 million+ Amazon Prime members around the world (up from 100 million in April 2018) who typically spend the most—

over $1,000 per year, according to recent stats. Said Bezos in his Q4-2019 earnings statement, “Prime memberships continue to get better for customers year over year. And customers are responding—more people joined Prime this quarter than ever before… We’ve made Prime delivery faster—the number of items delivered to U.S. customers with Prime’s one-day and same-day delivery more than quadrupled this quarter compared to last year.”  

Even with the shift of their largest annual promotion, Prime Day, from July to October 2020, Amazon sales continue to grow, as do membership numbers; many say that’s in great part due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, combined with the perceived and real benefits of membership (including lower relative pricing, broader product assortment and delivery options, and availability of product reviews). 

In today’s blog post,

we pull back the curtains on the sales juggernaut that is Amazon, to look specifically at the influence of Amazon Prime on sales in the Canadian marketplace. 

With a 10,000-person Daily Panel reaching all age groups and regions across Canada—nearly half of whom are currently Amazon Prime program members—we’ve gathered key data points that you won’t find anywhere else on this key segment of omnichannel shoppers, including: 

• membership numbers and demographic characteristics

• likelihood to join and/or renew

• the value of different Amazon Prime services and benefits

• how shopping behaviour is influenced by Prime membership—particularly spending and search habits around holiday shopping

• and more.

Let’s dig into the data to learn more.

WHO ARE CANADA’S AMAZON PRIME MEMBERS? 

As in the U.S., younger people are more likely than their elders to be Prime members. Specifically,

Canadian Millennials are 15% more likely to be Prime members than Baby Boomers, and are among the top 2 age groups who have been Prime members for 2–5 years (surpassed only by Gen Xers by 1%). 

Putting this into context: As we learned in our COVID-19 report, “The Great Divide: One Country, Multiple Cohorts,” though Millennials and Gen Zers are nearly 2x more likely than Baby Boomers to make luxury purchases to keep their spirits up, they’re also far less prepared to support themselves should their regular incomes dry up. Thus, the fact that Millennials predominate among Canada’s Prime members makes sense, as younger, digital-native Canadians are more likely to search for online deals, and Prime membership comes with a host of budget-conscious perks, including “fast, free delivery on millions of items.” (Further incentive: student memberships are discounted by 50% and they also get a free 6-month trial.)

Interestingly, among those self-identified Prime members (n = 3,859), 11% use another person’s account to access member benefits, including a significant percentage of Millennials and a lesser but still significant degree of Gen Zers. This perhaps suggests that younger members are in fact benefitting from their parents’ accounts and/or shopping budgets.

WILL PRIME MEMBERSHIP CONTINUE TO CLIMB IN CANADA?

And once again, younger Canadians indicate higher receptiveness to joining the Prime program than older generations: Gen Zers over-index against the general population by about 10% (compare this to Canadian Baby Boomers, who under-index by about 10%). 

WHAT FACTORS INFLUENCE PRIME MEMBERSHIP?

In a time of hoarding behaviour and product shortages, fulfillment issues and locked-down brick-and-mortar shopping opportunities due to the COVID scare, three interconnected factors seem to matter most to Prime members—pricing, convenience, and breadth of offering. 

Factor #1: Pricing

Without a doubt,

price is one of if not the primary consideration when Canadians make purchases through Amazon, followed by product reviews (59%) and product descriptions (41%).

(Note: This is consistent with American consumers, 82% of whom list pricing as an important shopping consideration.)

What do you consider when purchasing a product on Amazon?

(select all that apply)

Interestingly in this case, Gen Xers and Baby Boomers slightly over-index on price as a consideration (at 82.5% and 81%, respectively), as do Maritimers (81–89%) with the exception of Prince Edward Islanders, British Columbians and Manitobans (81% each). Meanwhile, Millennials demonstrate marginally more interest in the “Subscribe and Save program” than the general population, as do Albertans, Ontarians, Prince Edward Islanders and Saskatchewanians (all at 12% each).

This is reinforced by other Daily Panel results, where more than two-thirds of consumers consider price when shopping on Amazon (n = 8,497) and nearly 40% are likely to visit Amazon to compare product prices before making a purchase (n = 7,493). 

Factor #2: Convenience (including free delivery options) 

Convenience is king for just over half of participating Prime members—especially when it relates to “free same-day delivery”—ranking above any other reasons to have an Amazon Prime membership.

What is the main reason you have an Amazon Prime membership?

What Amazon Prime membership benefit(s) do you use? (select all that apply)

This is consistent with other Caddle findings: When asked of the member benefits they used, 61% of current Amazon Prime members ranked “shipping perk” at the top, second only to Prime Video by 10 points. And, in a Daily Panel survey from Dec. 13, 2020, nearly one in two consumers identified “shipping times” as a factor when shopping on Amazon. (We’re not surprised, mind you, as “flexible delivery options” is one of the features that Amazon hangs its hat on.) 

Overall, younger Canadians lead the charge on convenience, with Millennials and Gen Zers making up the bulk of consumers who are interested in the variety of delivery options offered by the program.

With such consistent results on this measure, it’s feasible to consider that because digital-native consumers have access to so much information 24/7 via their smart devices, they’re looking for instant gratification (“I want what I want when I want it!”) and are thus less open to waiting for their purchases to arrive. In contrast, older generations—who we’ve learned are also less likely than younger demographics to make online purchases in general—have been conditioned to wait at least some of the time to receive their online shopping bounty. 

Factor #3: Breadth of multi-channel platforms and features that no other retailer can match

While only about 20% of consumers identified Amazon’s various platforms as the main influencer in their current membership, almost three-quarters identified Prime Video as the top benefit of the program (Dec. 19, 2020; n = 4,577)—and other program features, including the Prime Music and Prime Reading, make up the remainder of the top 5. 

This suggests that the omni-channel and omni-media nature of Amazon makes it an even more appealing and farther-reaching service than other retail-only platforms.

HOW HAVE THE PANDEMIC AND THE PRIME DAY DATE-SHIFT INFLUENCED SHOPPING BEHAVIOUR?

Gen Zers were 13% more likely than Baby Boomers and 10% more likely than Gen Xers to become Prime members due to the pandemic, and Prince Edward Islanders, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians and Quebeckers were all more likely than the general population to join the Prime program because of the pandemic.  

At the same time,

the pandemic has affected both purchase size and frequency on the Amazon platform: More than a third of consumers have increased the amount they purchase in addition to their frequency of purchasing on Amazon since the pandemic started. 

What impact, if any, has the pandemic had on your Amazon purchase size vs. frequency?

Purchase Size vs. Purchase Frequency

Meanwhile, the shift of Prime Day from July to October didn’t seem to have kept Canadian shoppers away from spending their hard-earned COVID cash: While 43% of the general population had planned to participate in Prime Day in 2020, 37% identified that they did in fact shop on the special sales date (Millennials made up the largest group of Prime Day shoppers, at 30%, followed by Gen Zers, at 27%). And nearly the same percentage of consumers indicated that they weren’t affected by the change in date. 

Consumers who planned on participating vs.

consumers who actually participated in Amazon Prime Day this year:

How did the change in date of Amazon Prime Day this year affect your purchase behaviour in general?

KEY TAKEAWAYS

CANADIANS STILL HAVE MONEY TO SPEND AND AMAZON PROVIDES PRACTICAL BENEFITS FOR PANDEMIC-RESTRICTED SHOPPERS.

Amazon is committed to providing a consistent omnichannel shopping experience—perhaps most importantly, offering consistent shopping times that they deliver upon, time and time again. 

If retailers are going to take a bite out of Amazon’s growing domination of the Canadian marketplace, they’ll need to improve the consumer experience they deliver post-sale. With more proactive communications around order and shipping status, reduced shipping time and consistency on all purchases, and a more customer-friendly return process, Canadian retailers would succeed in winning back customers who want to support local over multinational, and might also amp up their reputation in the process.

AMAZON PRIME DAY TOOK CONSUMERS’ PURCHASING POWER THIS PAST HOLIDAY SEASON

Undeterred by a shift in date, a significant proportion of consumers waited until Q3 to make holiday purchases. (This is an interesting counterpoint to earlier Daily Panel findings, which indicated that about 30% planned to start their holiday shopping in November.) 

With this, it seems that once again, the benefits of Amazon Prime membership trump most other considerations in consumers’ shopping journey.

To compete against the Amazon Prime behemoth for a decent share of consumers’ holiday spend, retailers in Canada are going to need to plan even further ahead than they already were, getting their unique assortment in line while at the same time, improving their online fulfillment product mix in all warehouses, in order to make shipping times consistent across all categories—thereby easing the friction that many consumers have with online shopping closer to home.

Does Amazon’s sales volumes have you hungry to learn more? Reach out to us for more details on the Amazon Prime program and the customers that make it so successful.

*Disclaimer: all data presented is owned by CaddleⓇ and has a Margin of Error of 1% or lower.

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Published on February 3, 2021

To help brands better understand the purchase factors when consumers buy body moisturizer, we asked our 8,000+ daily panel across multiple factors and here’s what we found out. 

When it comes to frequency of usage, body lotion is truly an evergreen product in many Canadian households. Caddle’s daily panel says that body moisturizer is a staple skincare item they keep stocked up all year around. In fact, over 70% of Canadian consumers use body moisturizer on a weekly basis. What’s more, 40% of consumers use body moisturizer every, single, day! 

According to Statista.com, hand and body moisturizers ranked in second place with sales of around $282 CAD million dollars.

When is body moisturizer most used? 

Caddle found out that it’s less about the specific brand of body moisturizer, but more about the occasion in which consumers use body moisturizer. 

As it turns out, body moisturizer is used most often right after the shower, leading as the No.1 occasion, more than 2x greater than the next best occasion – when skin feels dry. 

Q: When do you use body moisturizer?

As a result, because body moisturizer is a product based on occasion rather than need-state, it is a product with strong insulation to seasonality and trends. This resilient personal care item is a product retailers can count on to continue to fly off the shelves. 

What else goes into the consumer decision-making process in the personal care aisle for lotion? What attributes are consumers considering? 

When it comes to decision factors, 48% of consumers consider effectiveness to be the most important, followed by price at 16%, and brand at 9%. As it turns out, 2 in 3 consumers spend less than $10 on moisturizer purchases on a monthly basis. While this personal care category only receives a small share of consumer wallets, that’s not to say this is a small product category, just a price sensitive one. What’s more, over 50% have more than 3 different brands currently in their household. This suggests the brand may very well be an afterthought when it comes to deciding which body moisturizer to purchase. Instead, consumers are making their purchase decisions based on effectiveness of the product. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Body moisturizer is a product everyone uses throughout the year, no matter the season or hottest beauty trend

• Consumers are not brand loyal when it comes to body lotion

• Effectiveness is the No.1 factor consumers consider when deciding which body moisturizer to buy in the personal care aisle

See how things have changed from one year ago.

*Disclaimer: all data presented is owned by CaddleⓇ and has a Margin of Error of 1% or lower. 

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