Chicory’s Bi-Weekly RecipeTrends: Week of 7/20/2020

At the height of the summer season and about four months into the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., we dug into the trends from our shoppable recipe network to see how stay-at-home orders being lifted affect recipe usage and online grocery ordering behavior.

Traffic patterns indicate that consumers are itching to return to their normal routines, or at least leave the house for family fun. We observed an increase in on- the-go and quick and easy recipes.

Recipes Show That Consumers Are On the Go

Classic quick and easy-style recipes that typically topped our shoppable recipe network pre-pandemic are making a comeback, some with summer twists. Easily packable lunches and meal prep solutions dotted our top 250 recipes in the past two weeks, indicating that many consumers are beginning to take back up their normal 9 to 5 routines with quick breakfasts, handheld snacks and convenient lunches.

Perfect Iced Coffee

Marinated Three Bean Salad

Easiest Macaroni Salad Ever

Avocado Toast

Classic Bruschetta

At-Home Festival Foods Skyrocket

While offices and retailers may be opening back up, families with small children still have to search for solutions to the noticeable lack of summer activities available this year. Sales for pools, trampolines and backyard play sets have spiked as parents grow desperate for ways to occupy kids in the middle of summer vacation with no group activity options available.

As a result, Chicory’s shoppable recipe network shows that recipes for classic summer state fair-style foods surged to appeal to restless kids and consumers searching for that fun festival, theme park, carnival or fair feel while at home. 69% of Chicory’s audience are households that fresquently visit theme parks and 20 million of Chicory’s visitors are family road-tripping enthusiasts who now all have to fill their summers with alternative at-home plans.

State Fair Cream Puffs

How to Make Dill Pickles

Banana Split Fluff

Funnel Cakes

Zucchini: A Summer Hit and Low Carb Staple

Zucchini showed a surge over the past few weeks as many recipes featuring this ingredient suddenly appeared in our shoppable recipe network’s list of top 250 ingredients--often, with a surprising twist.

Cool Ranch Zucchini Chips

Garlic Parm Zucchini Boats

Zucchini Pizza Casserole

Lemon Zucchini Bread

Part of the health-conscious and low-carb trend over the past few years, zucchini made its way into bread, muffins, pizza dough and more. This low-carb alternative’s sudden appearance this summer may signify that consumers are returning to their regular diets and forgoing the indulgent and hearty recipes that were all the rage at the beginning of the outbreak. From 1/1/2020 to present, recipes containing zucchini showed a 134% increase in engagement.

Recipe Usage and Orders

Recipe traffic remains consistently high. The week of 7/12 marked a larger-than- usual dip during the outbreak in recipe traffic during the week with levels returning to normal on Sunday, 7/19. This further indicates that consumers may be returning to their pre-pandemic habits of searching for recipes on the weekends to prepare for Sunday grocery shopping and to prep meals for the rest of the busy week.

Similarly, online grocery orders reflected a potential return to normal pre-pandemic consumer shopping habits as we saw a dip throughout the week of 7/12 with a return to consistent ordering levels.

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