The Asian American consumer may be a more significant shopper segment than previous research has indicated and is ripe for further study, a researcher told the Asian Market Summit in Los Angeles, sponsored by the Asian American Advertising Federation.
Dr. Jake Beniflah, executive director of the Center for Multicultural Science, based in Manhattan Beach, Calif., said spending on groceries in the Asian community is comparable to spending among non-Hispanic whites — $902 per capita among Asians, compared with $1,072 per capita among white consumers.
According to Beniflah, the industry’s eyes were opened to the power of independent retailers by a 2012 study by the National Grocers Association that showed the sector accounted for total annual sales of $131 billion, of which Hispanic, African American and Asian consumers accounted for a combined $44.2 billion, or about 34% of the total.
“But those numbers don’t encompass the full range of multicultural operators in the independent channel because they don’t include all the smaller, mom-and-pop stores that each do less then $2 million a year,” Beniflah pointed out.
He said a new report due for release in the next couple of months is using the NGA data to determine in more detail the buying power of multicultural shoppers.
The NGA study “opened the door” to maximizing their visibility, he said, “but the challenge going forward is to measure the impact of those smaller retailers.
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“Independent operators are in an optimal position to engage with the multicultural community,” he pointed out, “so they and the CPG companies need to build their cultural IQ by accessing the full range of syndicated data that’s available — data that represents a huge iceberg under the water that needs to be valued and quantified correctly to properly understand and address the multicultural segment.”
In response to a question, Beniflah said independents need to look at their store formats “to determine if they are reaching the market they are trying to serve, and if that market is changing or moving from one generation to another, they need to figure out how to change with it.
“But retailers are very savvy and they know that ethnic populations around the country are growing, which represents an opportunity to expand their customer base.”