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Nielsen improves Homescan to better measure cultural diversity and nutritional info

Shopping basket with fresh food and smartphone. Grocery supermarket, food and eats online buying and delivery concept. 3d illustration

Global research company Nielsen has revealed new improvements to its Homescan consumer panel that will capture the buying habits of tomorrow’s consumer.

The upgrades will allow the company to measure purchases in different channels in Australia’s grocery sector.

“The strength of our Homescan panel has always been in its breadth of measurement across grocery channels. The new enhancements, however, will give Australian retailers and manufacturers access to uncover the
biggest opportunities in retail: the rapidly growing e-commerce channel, purchasing patterns of multicultural households, and health and wellness trends with the integration of nutritional information and an expanded read on fresh food categories,” Bernie Hughes, managing director, Nielsen Connect – Pacific said.

“Our upgraded methodology also provides a more comprehensive read of smaller shopping baskets; this is an important consumer dynamic to understand as households now tend to shop more frequently and in ways convenient to them rather than the traditional weekly shop.”

Nielsen said that the latest Homescan measures the growing grocery e-commerce channel. Its data reveals that 278,000 new households bought their groceries online in 2018; and in the first quarter of 2019, online grocery sales increased by 22.2% versus the previous year – 10 times faster than total grocery growth of 2.2% in the same period. The fastest growing categories are pet supplies, frozen foods, health and beauty products and confectioneries.

Homescan will hire more staff so it can focus on delivering population representation for all ethnic groups and their specific buying habits.

Nielsen works with The George Institute. It found out that the Australian grocery can link a shopper’s behaviour with detailed food composition information in Homescan. It will provide 100 key categories, including health star ratings and nutrition info such as sugar content and gluten-free.

Homescan can also measure fresh categories (fruit and vegetables, meat, poultry, deli and seafood) which can capture the culturally diverse market. Ethnic households buys more leafy Asian vegetables, lychees, mango, eggplant and herbs compared to non-ethnic households.

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