The idea of having fresh ingredients and simple recipes boxed up and delivered to your door has struck a chord in Australia with customers spending an average of $211 per month on ready-to-cook meal kits.
Outside a temporary dip during the festive season, transactional data collected by Fonto shows overall penetration has grown steadily since January 2019 with customers citing convenience, variety of meals and positive health benefits as key drivers for choosing meal kits.
Despite their popularity, however, only 50% of the market is completely or very satisfied with their meal kit experience and 25% have purchased from two or more brands, suggesting low brand loyalty. Low retention (less than 1 in 3 purchase for longer than three months) indicates consumers are trialling the experience, then discontinuing or only turning to meal kits during covid restrictions.
Reasons for ditching meal kits include the cost, the lack of variety, poor taste and portion size. 72% of those who purchase are pay-as-you-go customers with around 1 in 4 committing to an ongoing subscription.
Fonto will continue to track meal kit transactions across its 40,000-strong member base to understand how consumers are spending in 2022 and beyond.
