Every year more Brazilians use the internet to eat. At least once a week, 9% of consumers buy food online —almost double the percentage recorded in 2018, which was 5%, reveals a summary of the research Taste of Tomorrow 2022.
The survey interviewed 3,200 people in Brazil and other Latin American countries and was carried out by Puratos, a multinational in the bakery, chocolate and confectionery market.
In Brazil, one in ten consumers buy fresh items online at least once a week, while 15% prefer to order food that is already ready to eat, points out an article about the research published in Fast Company. On iFood, seven market items are ordered on the app every second.
Delivery is perceived as something essential for the majority of people interviewed in the survey: 82% think that stores and restaurants need to have the structure to deliver products at home.
Delivery automation was another trend captured by the survey: 48% of people would like the delivery service to be automated — and drones are their favorite machine for this purpose.
But there is an exception: when it comes to buying bread and other confectionery products, Brazilians still prefer to go to the bakery, as they are afraid that the product will lose quality on the way to delivery and they prefer their bread very fresh.
This, in fact, is a peculiarity of Brazil; In other Latin American countries, people prefer to buy bread at supermarkets and convenience stores.
Technology improves shopping experience
In search of a more balanced diet, interest in healthy foods and also in plant-based, made with vegetable raw materials. In Brazil, 36% of people said they consume this type of food every week.
This is a lower rate than that recorded in Latin America: we are ahead of only Chile (28%) and Colombia (36%). The leader in this regard is Argentina, where preference reaches 51%.
Another preference captured by the survey was that of using technology to improve the shopping experience, even in physical stores. In general, consumers look for an online store to centralize their purchases and not have to look for products in many establishments.
Furthermore, the people interviewed in the survey were open to getting a little help from artificial intelligence at the time of purchase: 61% think it should help in indicating what to buy — even mapping the micro expressions of the face to identify what interests most.
