Key Trends: Home Show Inspired

Long-term megatrends such as sustainability and wellness were on display at the Inspired Home Show, with growing messages for sustainability, recyclability and energy savings. Of more immediate interest (and making a big splash at this event) were three lifestyle trends directly impacting growth opportunities and product choices in 2024.

The appeal of experiences catering to our own tastes has grown in our latest survey data. This manifests itself in a trend called Elevating the Experience, which is the origin of Riedel’s “Best in show” award and is visibly gaining momentum in catering and organizing for 2024 innovation.

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There is also increasing competition for kitchen space, while food choices are rapidly adapting to anti-meat professional, economic and social pressures.

Improve the experience

Part of this trend is recreating the restaurant experience at home. Studying Euromonitor International Consumer Foodservice data on restaurant performance in the United States, as total demand recovered by 2023, sit-down and eating in restaurants lost more than 30% of underlying demand compared to 2019, reflecting a dramatic decline in appeal, while the Euromonitor Voice of the Consumer: Lifestyle Survey reveals that 84% of people Respondents say restaurant food tastes better.

It was takeaway and delivery that saved the sector; Restaurant food is popular again, but at-home dining remains strong, mixing home-cooked and restaurant-cooked food consumption. Air fryers with food quality and flavor recovery are on the rise, and there is a growing trend towards premiumization of glossy and ceramic coatings in tableware, cutlery and serving products, decorating both the table and the room.

The strongest manifestation is in the glassware, embodied in Riedel’s “best in show” innovation of the “The Key to Wine” tasting kit. This allows a dinner host to curate a wine tasting experience for guests, create theater, and turn this into a form of dinner entertainment.

Considerable effort is being made in the area of ​​culinary theater, with burgeoning kitchen designs that make cooking a participatory, guest-observed art form. Elevating the Experience translates this thinking to serving and tasting skills, in this case educating on how grape and glass should work together for the best taste experience, providing a lived sales pitch explaining why it is worth worth investing in high-end glassware.

Competition for counter and cupboard space continues to grow

Analyzing U.S. food preparation appliance sales data (removing price increases) and comparing 2023 to 2019, light fryers were up 55% compared to pre-rev demand. pandemic, rice cookers were up 40%, while bread makers were up 30%.

With changing cooking habits, American households have purchased many new food preparation appliances, many of which sit on counters in use but otherwise need to be stored, increasing storage pressure in the kitchen.

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There is widespread space pressure in the marketing of furniture, appliances and kitchenware, as well as new launches.

For furniture, this involves integrated storage with some efforts to save space and flexible messaging. In kitchen utensils, the emphasis is on stackable and nested models, with removable and collapsible handles and folding pot lids.

At the show, Joseph Joseph presented new Space Cookware products with folding handles, while Made by Gather launched Bella Kitchenware’s Fits-anywhere range – a set of food preparation appliances with design stories around folding or interlocking pieces and slim designs.

Diets in the United States are rapidly adapting to veganism and the rising cost of protein

There is a clear link between what consumers cook regularly and the equipment they need in the kitchen: rapid changes in diet, as we are seeing now, have a direct impact.

The big movement is a peak in veganism in 2024, particularly among millennials and Generation Z in the United States, with 12% of the population now declaring themselves vegan or vegetarian, and veganism is for the first time larger than the vegetarianism.

^{Source: Euromonitor International}

Households that stop consuming meat or fish have little need to replace or invest in fillet or steak knives, duplicate cutting boards, specialized spatulas, meat tongs, frying pans or any other specialized utensils, cookware and cutlery related to their former diet.

An increasing use of plant-based ingredients creates more burnt residue, which contributes to the selling points of non-stick cookware, although it should be noted that this audience is very motivated by wellness and places a premium on greater attention to PFAS-free messages. The rise of veganism also means an increasing household target for premium glass and Tritan in food storage due to flavor transfer and staining as vegan recipes use more turmeric.

Consumers hit by food inflation are stepping up their efforts to find cheap sources of protein, pushing households away from fish and seafood and toward meat and eggs, in particular.

Hybrid work pressure combines with this economic pressure to create a particular need for a healthy, cheap, quick-cooking breakfast option. Eggs, combined with microwaves and air fryers and supporting utensils, will visibly benefit the most in 2024.

For our latest insights into the home and garden industry, please read our recently published reports on Where consumers shop for home and gardenAnd Competitor Strategies in the Home and Garden Industry.