The Times: India’s Set for a Retail Revolution — and the West is Cashing In
“India represents one of the largest current opportunities,” said Nick Carroll, Mintel Retail Principal Strategist, when he spoke to The Times, particularly as “prospects in the US and China have slowed significantly”.
For Western retailers, a combination of government reforms, ecommerce growth, consumer confidence, and exposure to global trends through social media, is the reason that now is the time to try to crack the market.
However brands, and particularly beauty brands, are facing localisation challenges. Mintel found that 25% of Indian beauty shoppers said they had not purchased global brands as they were not suitable for their skin.
Nevertheless, “India is expected to see some of the strongest consumer spending growth over the next five to ten years,” Nick added.
Washington Post: The Pumpkin Spice Latte Has Some Surprising Fall Competition
Jenny Zegler, Mintel Food & Drink Principal Strategist, and Varchasvi Singh, Mintel Foodservice Analyst, were interviewed by the Washington Post on the threat to Pumpkin Spice’s autumn popularity. They said that there is growing interest in notes such as miso-caramel, brown-butter honey, smoked butterscotch, and even international flavours such as hojicha, a Japanese green tea.
Jenny said that people gravitate to deeper, richer notes for the cozy season, adding, “That’s what PSL has set the standard for, and now we’ve got so many more options.”
Varchasvi adds a Foodservice perspective, saying “We’ve seen so much flavour innovation at coffee and tea shops, with refreshers and dirty sodas. Because it’s so noisy and diversified, I feel like there can’t be one go-to.”
Reuters: Could GLP-1s Kill Plus Size Fashion?
Mintel research shows that 45% of GLP-1 users who bought clothes in the last year did so because of a change in their body size or weight. Does that mean that in the era of GLP-1s, fashion might be pulling back plus sizes?
Tamara Sender Ceron, Mintel Fashion Retail Associate Principal, was interviewed by Reuters saying, “In previous seasons at London Fashion Week we have seen that plus size representation on the runway has been declining. Particularly discussions around GLP-1s create the impression that fashion, particularly at the designer end, is going backwards on body diversity.”
Tamara added, “This is likely to create particular pressure for plus size specialists. A good example is in Denmark where usage of GLP-1 is much higher and the plus-size retailer Nanna XL said it closed its stores and cited widespread use of Wegovy as a factor.”
CNBC: Cyclospora is Changing the American Workplace Lunch
The cyclospora parasite outbreak in the US has changed corporate America’s lunch habits. Since the outbreak, the salad-heavy restaurants
that tend to appear on workplace desks around lunchtime have struggled.
According to Mintel research, 69% of US consumers said – before the outbreak – salads were a typical lunch for them, putting the menu item only behind sandwiches, wraps, and pizza.
Stephanie Mattuci, Mintel Principal Strategist, was quoted by CNBC, saying that once the outbreak is resolved, consumers will likely return to their usual lunch preferences.
Ad Age: How DTC Brand Parke is Turning its Social-First Community into Retail Growth
Katie Hansen, Mintel Senior Retail Analyst, spoke to Ad Age about social-first brands turning virality into durable retail business.
She said that when it comes to DTC brands, Gen Z consumers are gravitating toward lifestyle brands like Parke rather than those “focused on functionality or solving white spaces in the marketplace.”
She added “They’re looking for that niche community over that mass-market message.”
ResearchLive: Mintel Launches CPG Innovation Framework
The MRS publication reports on Mintel’s new Demand and Supply framework which assists CPG brands with innovation work, using AI to identify where consumer demand is building for a product, whether product activity is keeping pace with that demand, and where any emerging opportunities lie.
Rachel Arndt, Mintel Consulting Senior Director said to ResearchLive, “Brands have always tried to connect consumer demand with what is happening in the market, but the process has often relied on an ‘insight plus insight’ approach, where teams interpret demand signals and category analysis separately before stitching them together.”
She added that the framework would not replace category expertise but give innovation teams “a stronger starting point for strategic judgement, reflecting a broader shift in market research from generating more insight to building measurable decision systems that help brands prioritise where to invest”.
