NPD's 2020 Kitchen Audit Reveals, What's Inside America's Kitchens? --The adoption of technologies to help in the kitchen accelerated during pandemic
The pandemic turned America's kitchens into command central for a host of activities this year, and to ease the stress of feeding the household too, consumers turned to technology, according to The NPD Group's "What's Inside America's Kitchens" study.
CHICAGO, Dec. 9, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- In this very upended year, America's kitchens have become command central for working, schooling, Zooming, entertaining, and preparing significantly more meals and snacks than the pre-pandemic norm, finds The NPD Group. To combat these added stressors, consumers are acquiring and using new technologies to either access foods and beverages or make them easier to prepare in the home, according to NPD's recently released, What's Inside America's Kitchens, which explores recent kitchen trends, generational differences, and the future outlook for in-home food and beverage consumption.
The adoption of technologies that enable more convenience in ordering food or meal preparation was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, the use of digital ordering for groceries and restaurant meals doubled from year ago levels. By summer, 42% of U.S. adults reported shopping for groceries online at least once in the past 30 days compared to just 29% in the same period last year. Digital restaurant orders were growing rapidly pre-pandemic and COVID accelerated it exponentially. In regards to meal prep, voice assistants were used by 55% of U.S. meal preparers to get recipes, convert recipe measurements, keep time, order groceries, and help in an array of other kitchen duties. Although most households don't have Wi-Fi enabled smart kitchen appliances yet, 42% of these households say they are interested in owning these devices.
"The COVID lockdowns forced consumers to suddenly rethink their food acquisition and preparation strategies, and convenience took on a whole new meaning as households dealt with the increased pressures in the home," says Darren Seifer, NPD food and beverage industry analyst. "Technology came to the rescue and helped ease the stress of obtaining and preparing food, and it's highly unlikely that consumers will stop using these technologies when the pandemic ends. This is a behavior that food companies, manufacturers, and retailers will need to take into account when developing and marketing products."
Note: For more than 20 years, The NPD Group has asked U.S. households to provide details about what they have in their kitchens. NPD's 2020 Kitchen Audit provides the most comprehensive view of the foods, beverages, appliances, cookware, utensils, and other products on hand in U.S. home kitchens, the impact of the pandemic, and where it's all heading in the future.
About The NPD Group, Inc.
NPD offers data, industry expertise, and prescriptive analytics to help our clients grow their businesses in a changing world. Over 2,000 companies worldwide on us to help them measure, predict, and improve performance across all channels, including brick-and-mortar and e-commerce. We have offices in 27 cities worldwide, with operations spanning the Americas, Europe, and APAC. Practice areas include apparel, appliances, automotive, beauty, books, B2B technology, consumer technology, e-commerce, fashion accessories, food consumption, foodservice, footwear, home, juvenile products, media entertainment, mobile, office supplies, retail, sports, toys, and video games. For more information, visit http://www.npd.com. Follow us on Twitter: @npdgroup
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SOURCE The NPD Group
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