Grocery market research
Grocery market research that reflects how people really shop
Grocery market research is how retailers and brands understand how people really shop, trip by trip rather than shopper by shopper, and where share is quietly won or lost. It spans store and product choice, trip and mission analysis, pricing and promotion, range and format testing, path to purchase and brand health. Basis runs it across the US, UK and globally, in store and online.
Grocery isn’t bought shopper by shopper. It’s bought trip by trip. The big weekly shop, the midweek top-up and the dash for tonight are different trips on different missions, often made by the same person in the same week. Headline numbers average them together, so a brand can look healthy while it’s losing the trips that matter.
And each trip is fought on its own ground. The big weekly shop is up against discounters and warehouse clubs. The top-up, against convenience stores and delivery apps. The dash for tonight, against takeout. Within each trip, every category plays by its own rules, so benchmark against the wrong rival and you’ll miss where your share is really going.
Grocery doesn’t have a loyalty problem. It has a visibility problem.
Grocery looks like the most loyal category there is. In our 2026 study of 4,000 shoppers across the US and UK, three in four said they always or usually choose the same store. But that number is inertia wearing loyalty’s clothes: 38% would switch for a cheaper option, a third for a more convenient one. Nothing has pushed them yet.
The danger isn’t disloyalty. It’s believing the loyalty score. Shoppers drift trip by trip, the top-up here, the dash there, and by the time the drift reaches your share, the habit is already broken.
So the grocery research that matters isn’t the study that reassures you you’re fine. It’s the one that shows where you’re quietly losing, and where you could win, the trip, the mission, the moment, while you can still act on it. That’s how we approach every grocery brief.
What great grocery research delivers
Grocery decisions are fast, habitual and easy to mis-read. Good research cuts through the averages to show what actually moves the category, from the everyday trip to the next big launch.
We help grocery teams:
- Understand what drives store and product choice, and what would make shoppers leave
- Track share by trip, the big shop, the top-up and the dash, because that’s where it moves
- Test pricing, promotions and range without eroding trust or margin
- Validate new products, ranges and formats before you invest
- Map the path to purchase across store, app and delivery
- Get ahead of own-label and competitor moves in your aisles
- See who you’re really up against on each trip and mission, from club stores to delivery apps
- Pressure-test messaging, packaging and digital experience before you spend
How a grocery study comes together
No off-the-shelf frameworks. We build every grocery study around how shoppers in your category actually decide, then choose the methods that answer it.
That usually means a mix. Qualitative work to get inside the trip and the mission behind it. Quantitative research to track share by trip, size demand and model price and promotion. Organic Intelligence, our AI and big-data practice, to read across millions of real shopper conversations and reviews. Cultural and trend analysis to tell a lasting shift from a passing one. And shopper work, through Touchpoint 360°, to follow the journey from shelf to screen across store, app and delivery.
AI runs through all of it, from how we read conversation at scale to how we model demand. The judgment about what it means for your brand stays human.
Grocery market research FAQ
What is grocery market research?
Grocery market research is how retailers and brands understand how people really shop, trip by trip rather than shopper by shopper, and where share is quietly won or lost. It covers store and product choice, trip and mission analysis, pricing and promotion, range and format testing, path to purchase and brand health. Basis runs it across the US, UK and globally, in store and online.
How do shoppers decide where to buy their groceries?
Trip by trip, not once and for all. The big weekly shop, the mid-week top-up and the dash for tonight are three different decisions with different rules, often made by the same person in the same week. Basis finds that convenience, price and habit drive most of it, and that a shopper who looks loyal can be drifting one trip at a time long before it shows in share.
What does Basis do in grocery market research?
Basis works across store and product choice, trip and mission analysis, pricing and promotion testing, range and format validation, path-to-purchase mapping, and brand health tracking, for retailers and brands. Every project is scoped around the trips and decisions that move your share, from a single launch to an always-on tracking program.
What can grocery brand tracking measure?
Grocery brand tracking measures how your standing changes over time, by trip: which missions you win, where consideration and preference are slipping, and what would make shoppers switch stores or products. Basis tracks share where it actually moves, mission by mission, so you can act on a quiet drift before it reaches your headline numbers, rather than after.
Why is loyalty misleading in grocery?
Because most of it is inertia wearing loyalty’s clothes. In our 2026 study three in four shoppers said they always or usually choose the same store, yet 38% would switch for a cheaper option and a third for a more convenient one. Nothing has pushed them yet. Basis measures how exposed that habit really is, trip by trip, so you don’t bank a loyalty score that isn’t there.
How is grocery research different from other categories?
Grocery is bought trip by trip rather than shopper by shopper, so headline averages hide where you’re winning or losing. The same person shops completely differently for the big shop, the top-up and the dash. It also spans store, app and delivery at once. Basis reads the category the way shoppers actually experience it, by mission, in store and online.
Which markets can Basis run grocery research in?
Basis runs grocery market research in the US, the UK and globally from a single team, rather than stitching together separate local suppliers. That means consistent method and comparable results across markets, with local nuance where it matters, useful for retailers and brands managing the category across regions, in store and online.
Grocery research in action
A decade of insight at the heart of strategy
For over a decade, one of the world’s biggest grocery retailers has partnered with us to keep brand tracking at the center of its strategy.
Learn more →
Uncovering what drives shopper love at Eataly
We uncovered what makes Eataly special, and turned it into a roadmap to elevate retail, deepen shopper connection, and spark innovation.
Learn more →Why grocery teams choose Basis
We know grocery is a category of small margins and fast decisions, where the difference between a good quarter and a bad one is a handful of trips. So we don’t hand over a deck and disappear. We work with your team to make sure the insight drives the next move.
What we bring:
- Deep grocery expertise, with some of the biggest names in the category
- A trip-first approach built around how grocery is actually bought
- Reach across store, app and delivery, in the US, UK and globally
- End-to-end capability across qual, quant, Organic Intelligence and cultural insight
- The confidence to challenge when it helps, and the focus to move fast when it counts
Win the trips that decide your share
We help grocery teams see the category trip by trip, protect the shop they own and win the ones they’re quietly missing.
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