Customers buying smaller food packets but more often

Shoppers in the UAE are buying smaller packets of food but are shopping more often, according to market research. They are also going for smaller packs in beverages and dairy and are looking for discounts.

- Nasreen Abdulla [e-mail]

"The number one behaviour change that we see among the shoppers is that cost of living is going up and that is making the shopper sensitive about the volume," said Imtiaz Hashem, Consumer Insights Director of market research company Worldpanel by Numerator. "Shoppers are buying less per trip, but the frequency of shopping has significantly gone up as compared to 2023.'

He was speaking at the two-day Future Food Forum, which took place in the UAE earlier this week, urging businesses to reconsider pack size formatting, bundling strategies, and product placement to align with evolving consumer preferences. "This is definitely of functional importance to understand how to do bundling, what to do about pack size formatting, and where are shoppers buying," he explained.

Gen Z shoppers