Chocolate: How Health-Conscious Shopping Habits are Changing the Category
They say you are what you eat - and we’re becoming increasingly knowledgeable about what’s in our food. Recently influencers and popular tabloids have been calling out some of the grocery titans on their products - such as Arla feeding Boaver to their dairy cows to reduce their flatulence or the inclusion of seed oils in everyday products such as peanut butter. Knowledge is power and it helps consumers make better choices when they are grocery shopping. This is also having a knock on effect on chocolate with HFSS restricting confectionary brands from advertising their products as they did before.
Looking at broader consumer statistics, a 2024 survey by Savanta revealed that 32% of UK consumers reported feeling healthier compared to the previous year, marking a seven-point increase from 2023. The same study found that 49% of shoppers are purchasing more healthy products, 37% are cooking from scratch more frequently, and 30% have increased their exercise routines, all being key indicators that consumers are trying to look after their health better than recent years.
Despite chocolate still being a preferred sweet treat amongst many, we can see some trends emerging that give indication that consumers are starting to make better choices. The global dark chocolate market is expected to grow at a rate of 8.28% CAGR whilst milk chocolate is expected to grow at a rate of 6.31% annually. This may be largely driven by dark chocolate being perceived as a healthier alternative to its sweeter counterparts.
We can see similar trends emerge on Amazon, particularly with search demand increasing faster for “dark chocolate” whilst the broader all inclusive keyword “chocolate” saw huge spikes over Covid which has since plateaued.
This gives indication that consumers broadly and on Amazon are looking for healthier potentially more sustainable options when it comes to their self treat and gifting habits. Brands in the chocolate space should be considering how to position themselves on Amazon to highlight their healthier or sustainable credentials to an audience that will increasingly look for it.
If you are looking for similar insights and trends for your own category, please reach out today to discuss our options.