Key takeaways 

• Despite inflation, consumers consistently prioritize and are willing to pay for wellness. This makes “food as medicine” a durable retail strategy, not a temporary trend. 

• In a market where many consumers are often confused about nutrition, retailers can build deep brand loyalty by offering clarity and personalized guidance. This positions them as trusted partners, differentiating them from competitors. 

• Using existing customer data to understand nutritional habits allows retailers to create a measurable and scalable wellness strategy. This provides valuable insights for both targeted customer engagement and strategic business decisions. 

• The “food as medicine” approach opens up opportunities for retailers to collaborate with a broader health ecosystem, including insurers and health brands. These new B2B partnerships create additional revenue streams and increase customer value. 

• Digital tools like dacadoo can transform this strategy from a concept into a real-world, highly personalized experience for customers.  

Why retailers need to embrace Food as Medicine 

Although the idea that food influences health is hardly new, its prominence in consumer thinking has surged dramatically. Despite global economic uncertainties and inflationary pressures, consumer expenditure on health and wellness is not only solid but, for many, is increasing. A recent Accenture report revealed that approximately 80% of consumers plan to sustain or grow their wellness spending. 

Research from Deloitte further solidifies this. Deloitte found that 84% of shoppers prioritize health in their fresh food purchases—and, perhaps more significantly, 55% are willing to pay a premium for healthier options. Data like this clearly shows that health is no longer a “nice-to-have” add-on for consumers, but a fundamental factor in the shopping equation.  

For retailers, this has major implications when it comes to remaining resilient during economic downturns. With consumers continuing to prioritize their health, irrespective of the economic climate, catering to the health and wellness market is effectively a recession-proof strategy.  

The loyalty and differentiation opportunity 

Of equal importance to future-proofing is brand differentiation. With fresh and healthy food categories among the fastest-growing in the retail sector, a health-oriented retail strategy helps capture and retain customers in a highly crowded marketplace.   

That said, simply stocking healthy items isn’t enough. Deloitte’s research also reveals a major knowledge gap, with many consumers confused about what truly constitutes healthy eating. This confusion offers a major opportunity for retailers, however.  

Stepping in to offer clear guidance, reliable information, and a curated selection that simplifies healthy choices, retailers can turn themselves into trusted health partners rather than just product outlets. This builds a major level of brand differentiation that transcends mere transactional relationships. When a retailer helps a customer understand the complexities of healthy eating, they create consumer trust and loyalty that are far more enduring than any discount program could ever hope to be. 

How retailers can act on Food as Medicine

Turning the “Food as Medicine” philosophy into a tangible retail strategy involves a number of key factors: 

Clearer nutrition labeling and guidance: Beyond standard nutritional panels, retailers can implement in-store and app-based systems that use simplified, visual cues to highlight key health benefits. This could include color-coded ratings, “heart-healthy” or “high-fiber” badges, or even QR codes linking to deeper nutritional insights. 

Personalized nudges and digital engagement: Using loyalty program data, retailers can provide tailored recommendations through receipts, dedicated loyalty apps, and email campaigns. For example, retailers can offer a weekly summary that highlights healthy swaps based on past purchases or offer recipe ideas featuring nutrient-dense ingredients the customer tends to buy. 

Gamification and community initiatives: Engaging customers through “healthy basket challenges” or family-focused nutrition education programs can make healthy eating more fun and accessible. Retailers can host in-store cooking demonstrations focusing on healthful meals or partner with local dieticians for educational workshops. 

Cross-industry partnerships: The healthy eating movement naturally lends itself to collaborations beyond traditional retail. Partnering with health insurers to offer incentives for healthy food purchases, integrating with health and fitness apps for holistic wellness tracking, or even co-creating content with healthcare providers can extend a retailer’s reach and value proposition.  

The business case for building customer trust and long-term value 

While Food as Medicine may be a noble pursuit when it comes to corporate social responsibility, it’s a strategy that also makes money. Retailers that position themselves as trusted guides on the health shopping journey gain several financial advantages.  

Improved customer retention and lifetime value: Customers who feel supported in their health journey are more likely to remain loyal, increasing their long-term value to the retailer. This moves the relationship beyond price-sensitivity to value-driven engagement. 

Differentiation beyond price wars: In a market often driven by the lowest price, a health-centric approach allows retailers to compete on value, trust, and well-being, rather than solely on cost. 

New B2B and ecosystem opportunities: The wellness market (estimated by McKinsey to be a $2 trillion industry) offers immense potential for new partnerships. Collaborating with health insurers, digital health platforms, and wellness brands creates synergistic relationships, expanding revenue streams and solidifying the retailer’s position within a broader health ecosystem.  

Gain healthier customers and earnings reports with dacadoo  

To effectively implement measurable and scalable “Food as Medicine” strategies, retailers need to engage with digital solutions. At dacadoo, we offer a suite of tools that allow retailers to establish their position as trusted partners in their consumers’ health quickly and effectively. 

At the core of our offerings is our Digital Health Engagement Platform (DHEP)—a holistic platform that combines lifestyle coaching, behavioral science, and gamification to drive healthier habits. Working hand-in-hand with this is our Grocery Basket Score (GBS™), a science-based system that analyzes a customer’s monthly purchases to provide a simple, actionable score of their basket’s nutritional quality. With these platforms delivering highly personalized nutrition guidance—and integrating easily into a retailer’s existing loyalty programs—they offer a way forward that’s as healthy for retailers as it is for their customers.  

To find out more about how dacadoo’s GBS™ and Digital Health Engagement Platform (DHEP) can help your retail business thrive, you can contact us here.