Sainsbury’s and Nectar have today announced the taste trends that swept the nation during 2022, as Nectar’s Year in Review returns for digital customers on the Nectar app tomorrow.
Customers can expect a personalised overview of their shopping habits from 2022, including their top three most frequently purchased products. Using data from 17.6* million Nectar customers, the retailer has revealed customer shopping habits that were popular last year.
As 2022 kicked off, more people took on dry January, with purchases on alcohol-free products up 20% year on year. Veganuary also proved popular, with vegan product purchases up by nearly 9% compared to 2021.
It goes without saying that Brits had an egg-cellent Pancake Day in March, with over 900,000 lemons and nearly 2 million boxes of eggs purchased in the week leading up to Shrove Tuesday. Pancake Day wasn’t the only day customers had eggs at the top of their shopping lists – Easter saw a whopping 10.7 million chocolate eggs purchased in the weeks leading up to Easter Sunday, as well as 3.5 million hot cross buns!
In June, the nation came together to celebrate the late Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in marking her Platinum Jubilee. The long weekend saw families, friends and neighbours get together for street parties and with one essential on the menu – scones! A triumphant 1,167,000 scones were gobbled, with almost 95,000 customers buying a packet on the first day of the Jubilee Weekend alone!
The rest of the summer had plenty more opportunities to celebrate together, as Wimbledon saw customers buying 3.5 million portions of strawberries and 341,000 pots of cream. The England Women’s Football team finally brought it home and to celebrate customers bought over 900,000 bags of crisps and nuts, over 125,000 dips and nearly 1.5 million bottles and cans of beer on the day of the final!
As the school holidays started, Nectar kickstarted The Great Fruit & Veg Challenge, running for 7 weeks. The digital challenge was berry popular with an incredible 88 million portions of fruit purchased, up 59% compared to the 2021 challenge. Customers remained bananas for bananas with over 1 billion of the fruit bought, beating the number of portions purchased for apples and oranges combined!
Halloween’s popularity continued to grow with nearly 800,000 customers buying a pumpkin, up 6% compared to last year. During the first week of November, thoughts turned to winter warmers as hot chocolate stations became a moment on Instagram. Customers were clearly behind this trend with over 190,000 pots of hot chocolate and over 18,000 bags of marshmallows bought – the makings of a spectacular bonfire night!
As the year drew to a close, December saw families and friends coming together to celebrate the Christmas holidays – it seems there wasn’t a dry Turkey in sight with customers buying a whopping 3.5 million pots of gravy for the big day! Shoppers also picked up over 1 million packets of Yorkshire puddings to accompany their Christmas Day feast.
Alex Naisby, Director of Loyalty & CRM at Sainsbury's, said, “Nectar’s Year in Review is always a moment I look forward to as not only is it exciting to discover my top purchases, it’s also fantastic to see the products our customers love and the celebrations and trends they enjoy.
“Last year we came together to celebrate so many moments as a nation, and as usual food and drink was at the heart of those milestone moments. We’re delighted to have helped our customers to indulge and celebrate, but also supporting them to make healthier choices. I can’t wait to see how customer shopping habits change throughout 2023!”
Tomorrow, digital Nectar customers will be able to access their Year in Review stats through the Nectar app, revealing whether customers are the #1 top buyer for a product in their favourite store, as well as uncovering their top three most frequently purchased products.
Other data including top category purchases, portions of fruit and veg bought, total number of transactions and number of Nectar points collected will also be featured. New Nectar customers can also access Year in Review, featuring regional data, based on where they live.