By Meggie I. Foster
Assistant Editor LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In a world of growing fast food consumers, meal planning has become less prevalent and more impulsive, according to Frank Beurskins, co-founder and CEO of ShoptoCook, Inc. an Internet-based recipe and shopping guide.
Beurskins cited data that shows 46 percent of shoppers that don’t know what they’re cooking for dinner tonight and 58 percent shop without a list.
“Many shoppers lack the skill and confidence to try something new,” he said, adding that 87 percent prepare the same recipes 3.4 times a month. “Shoppers often complain of being in a ‘recipe rut.’”
As a simple way to combat this attitude, Beurskins has developed ShoptoCook, an online database of recipes available on the Web as well as interactive touch-screens located in grocery shops across the country.
“Customers have the desire to change up their recipe routine, they’re looking for help, and solutions can be made in the meat and seafood aisles,” he said. “This is a simple way to get recipes out to consumers and to find out what they’re looking for. We can use this technology to solve shopper problems at the store.”
For instance, when a shopper scans a perishable item, recipes appear instantly on the touch-screen and the shopper can print the recipe as well as a shopping list. Or as another option, a shopper can click on an area such as seafood, for kids, chicken, desserts and meals and minutes, and recipes will appear allowing the shopper to choose.
“Our content is constantly changing and we’re always changing recipes,” Beurskins said, who added that the majority of ShoptoCook recipes are received from checkoff and commodity organizations such as the beef and pork councils, for instance.
He explained a typical buyer purchases 400 distinct items in a year and buys half of these items regularly, whereas there are 4,000 items available. Additionally, chicken breast, ground beef, round roast and London broil represent 25 percent of all meat sold in the United States.
Beurskins went on to describe some of the most popular recipe categories selected by shoppers using ShoptoCook. As the number-one category, “For Kids” garnered 6.816 million views, of which 206,590 recipes were printed, he explained.
In the number-two position, shoppers scanned a perishable item to look for recipes, of which they printed more than 199,000. In other hot categories, ranking among the top were “What’s New,” “Dessert Lovers,” “Seafood,” “Meals in Minutes,” “Chicken” and “Great Grilling.”
To a group of livestock producers and officials, Beurskins asked, “‘Why is seafood before chicken, beef and pork?’” and explained the confidence level is very low in cooking and preparing seafood. Additionally, seafood represents less than 1 percent of all sales.
“Here there lies both a problem and an opportunity,” he said of shoppers’ growing interest in attaining seafood recipes.
Beurskins listed the top scanned items as chicken parts, steak, ground beef, fish, beef roast and vegetables. “This list is very telling of shoppers, because it showed exactly what items they picked up, scanned and that they are looking for more,” he explained.
As an additional option on the touch-screen recipe database, Beurskins said one may also type in words to search for recipes. He listed the most popular search words as chicken, cookies and steak, followed by shrimp, beef, chili, cake, pizza and pork.
Beurskins described an interesting scenario in which his company had a retailer make a conscious effort to sell more turkey parts. Beurskins designed a recipe database with more turkey recipes.
“In a 30-day period, the retailer recorded increased sales of turkey parts by 12 percent,” he said.
He describes the ShoptoCook system as solution marketing, versus specific product focus: “The bottom line is that recipes sell, solutions sell and that shoppers are looking for more.”
To view ShoptoCook or to search for recipes, visit www.shoptocook.com |
