Euromonitor digs into trends impacting North American grocery in 2025 at NRF
Change is a constant in grocery retail and that makes it challenging to prepare for what’s ahead.
“When we think about retail as a whole, obviously there’s lots of shifts taking place with new business models, new channels, different consumer expectations seemingly every day, making it harder to map the future of retail,” Michelle Evans, Euromonitor International’s global lead of retail and digital consumer insights told attendees at NRF 2025, Retail’s Big Show in New York this week.
To better understand the shifts taking place, Euromonitor established what it calls a Retail Reinvention Framework that organizes these shifts into three pillars: shoppers, industry and digitalization. During her session on North American grocery trends, Evans explored some of the tensions within each pillar:
Shoppers—price vs. values
While finding bargains continues to be the top motivation for grocery shoppers, it’s been on the decline both globally and in North America over the last decade. “Price alone isn’t the only purchase driver,” said Evans, shoppers are considering other things such as the quality and authenticity of the product and if the company behind the item aligns with their personal values. In fact, according to Euromonitor’s Voice of the Consumer survey (Feb. 2024) 30% of consumers in North America and globally say they’ll buy from brands that align with their political and social views and values, while more than 25% of North American shoppers will go so far as to boycott buying from companies that don’t share their political beliefs.
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Industry—retailers vs. brands
To summarize this tension, “It’s the idea that retailers are operating more like brands and brands are operating more like retailers,” said Evans, adding that this is unfolding in different ways; for instance, grocery retailers pursuing more private label and brands pursuing direct to consumer (DTC) strategies. “We estimated at Euromonitor that about $250 billion will be spent via DTC this year, that’s about 20% of e-commerce goods and services income, so that penetration rate is the highest that we see globally. Obviously, both emerging and established brands are [using] DTC to try to have that closer connection with consumers to drive a more profitable model as well,” explained Evans.
Digitalization—humanity vs. technology
Consumers are becoming increasingly more open to using technology across their commerce experiences, said Evans. “But the challenge is that level of comfortability really hinges on their perceived level of intrusiveness with the technology and what they see as a benefit of using that technology.” For instance, Euromonitor’s research shows that more than 60% of North American shoppers are comfortable with robots guiding them through a store and more than 50% are OK with robots preparing meals in restaurants. That comfortability drops when asked about their comfort level with, for instance, having a microchip inserted in their fingertip for making purchases.
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“Consumer comfortability with technology hinges on consumers feeling like they have control,” said Evans, adding retailers should always give consumers the ability to opt out. As an example, she pointed to Amazon Fresh supermarkets. While smart carts are a feature of these tech-forward stores, she said when she visits her local Amazon Fresh in suburban Chicago, “The human is still very front and centre. There’s usually someone at the front of the store when you walk in, if you need help with the smart cart, and if you don’t want to use the smart cart, you’ve still got the old-fashioned grocery cart.” And if you have challenges with the smart cart while shopping, a human staff member will immediately come to your aid. “It’s about meeting the consumers where they’re at,” said Evans. “All things have got to balance—bringing in this technology but ensuring that the human component remains.”
