Easter and Passover are among the major religious celebrations in the Spring, and people all over the world are taking part. Since food plays an essential role in the tradition of these holidays, Grocery brands should take note of how consumers are shopping, and make extra efforts to appeal to and engage their shoppers who participate in Easter and Passover festivities.
According to the NRF, consumers celebrating Easter on April 9th plan to spend $24 billion on the holiday this year, up from $20.8 billion in 2022 and the previous record high of $21.7 billion in 2020. Of these consumers, 56 percent plan to do so by making a family meal. Spending extends itself across several categories, with a particular focus on Grocery. The top items consumers say they are planning to purchase include candy ($3.3 billion), gifts ($3.8 billion), and food ($7.3 billion).
Passover, the Springtime Jewish holiday, begins April 5th this year and extends until April 13th. Passover is also traditionally celebrated with a special dinner called the Seder. If your brand sells Passover-friendly foods, such as matzo, dairy, and fish, you might want to ensure you’re positioning your products to those who celebrate. In fact, insights from Instacart showed that orders for Matzo increased 300 percent the week before 2022’s Passover. Meanwhile, other popular Passover foods also saw significant increases in orders, including rack of lamb (+97 percent), matzo ball soup mix (+73 percent), Gelfilte fish (+58 percent), and Brisket (+53 percent).
When looking at findings from last year’s Spring holidays, the MikMak Shopping Index revealed a rise in Purchase Intent Rate, which measures how frequently shoppers continue to a retailer from Shoppable Media, starting on Tuesday, April 5th. During this timeframe, we saw two distinct peaks of Purchase Intent, which happened the day before Easter (April 16th, 2022), and the day before the last day of Passover (April 22nd). These trends might indicate that shoppers made last-minute Grocery purchases online to round out their festivities.
What exactly were people buying? Coffee and candy products complete the top Grocery products purchased around the Spring holiday season. Medium Roast Coffee Cups and a Vanilla-flavored coffee drink took the first two spots, while various chocolate treats rounded out the rest of the top five products.
Looking at social commerce performance over the last month, we see that Grocery brands advertising on YouTube has the highest Purchase Intent Rates at 5.6 percent (1.5 x the category benchmark). Following YouTube is Pinterest, just under the category benchmark with 3.5 percent. Facebook, TikTok, and Snap have lower-than-average Purchase Intent Rates right now, at 2.6 percent, 2.1 percent, and 0.3 percent, respectively.
Among the top five Grocery retailers, Walmart leads with a 47.6 percent Share of Purchase Intent Clicks (the number of times shoppers have clicked through to at least one retailer). Following behind is Target, with 18 percent. The remaining three retailers in the top five are Amazon, Instacart, and Kroger. Amazon and Instacart yield 14.9 percent and 14.7 percent of Purchase Intent Clicks, respectively, while Kroger trails with 4.8 percent.
These trends are similar to those we have seen in the past year. YouTube and Walmart have consistently been the top channel and retailer, as illustrated in our recent 2023 Grocery eCommerce Benchmarks & Insights Guide.
Enable eCommerce capabilities like shoppable media to create a seamless experience for shoppers
Whether it's for a holiday, a shopping occasion, or just day-to-day, it’s important that consumers can buy seamlessly. Enabling shoppable media with a partner like MikMak allows consumers to purchase your product easily from any retailer they choose.
For example, MikMak customer HERSHEY’S used shoppable media to display their seasonal egg-shaped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. This experience allows shoppers to check out at their favorite retailers, or even on the brand’s website. Find out how your brand can do the same, and schedule a demo today.