With so many consumers becoming increasingly concerned with health and wellness, the juice bar industry appears to be thriving. According to QSR Magazine, a few growing trends like green juice and smoothies are having an impact on the industry, but the category as a whole isn’t growing as much as it may seem. So how many consumers regularly patronize these juice bars? We asked 1,000 respondents on August 10-12 what they think about juice and smoothie bars and if the industry is poised for more growth.
Juice Consumers
In Ask Your Target Market’s latest survey, 23% of respondents said that they’ve had juice or smoothie beverages in the past day. Another 23% have had them in the past week. 17% have had them in the past month. 8% have had them in the past three months. 6% have had them in the past year. 5% said it’s been over a year since they last drank juice or smoothie beverages. And 17% said they aren’t juice or smoothie consumers.60% of juice consumers said that they normally purchase their juice from grocery stores. 31% enjoy homemade juice. 20% regularly go to juice or smoothie bars. 17% get juice or smoothies from restaurants. And 12% get them from coffee shops. Strawberry was the most popular juice flavor mentioned by respondents, followed by orange, berry and apple.
Health Concerns
In general, 53% of respondents said they consider themselves to be healthy. 50% said they have generally healthy eating habits. 64% consider juice to be a healthy beverage. And 61% said that they try to drink healthy beverages whenever possible.When purchasing beverages, 40% of respondents said that taste is most important to them. 31% care about cost above all else. 10% care about the ingredients used. 8% value quality. 7% care about the nutritional value of their beverages. 2% care about brand name. And another 2% value sustainability or organic labels.
Juice Bars
Overall, 13% of respondents said that they’ve been to specialty juice or smoothie bars many times. And 26% said they’ve gone to them at least once or twice. Jamba Juice was the most popular juice bar mentioned by respondents. Smoothie King, Orange Julius and Tropical Smoothie Bar were also mentioned.And looking forward, 26% of respondents said they are at least somewhat likely to go to specialty juice or smoothie bars within the next year. Of those who have already been to juice bars, 48% said that they are likely to go again in the coming year. Consumers who consider themselves to be healthy were also more likely than consumers overall to have an interest in patronizing juice bars this year.
Key Takeaways
Juice bars like Jamba Juice and Smoothie King are already focusing on healthy consumers, which is a good strategy since those consumers are more likely to be interested in what they have to offer. However, those healthy consumers are also more likely to purchase their juice from grocery stores and to make it themselves at home. So if juice bars want to attract more of those customers, it could be beneficial for them to offer mixes and ingredients that people can use to make their own drinks at home. And if they can get customers to support their brands in that way, it could help them build enough trust and loyalty so that they’ll also support them when they go out for juice or smoothies.You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.Photo Credit: Happy Juice Bar by eefeewahfah under CC BY-SA 2.0What do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.
Results were collected on August 10-12 via AYTM’s online survey panel.