Coffee, Candy Rank Highest in 2022 RangeMe's Global Buyer Searches

Coffee, candy and mushrooms were top of mind among retail buyers last year, as they were the most-used keyword searches on online platform RangeMe, according to its latest "Retail Recap 2022" report. 

The report highlights trends among the activity of U.S. and international buyers on the product discovery platform, including keyword and certification searches, most visited collections, and engagement with products and brands.

"The products buyers are searching for now are those that will be on the shelves in the coming months and years," said Nicky Jackson, founder of San Francisco-based RangeMe, an ECRM company. "By analyzing the buyer activity on RangeMe, we get a look at what will be trending next in the fast-moving consumer goods arena."

Coffee was the most popular keyword for buyers in 2022, garnering 19.4% of all searches in a reflection of new trends in the category, including cold brew, fair trade, functional coffee and coffee accessories. Just behind coffee, representing 18.4% of keyword search terms, was candy, a category that includes some of the top-performing brands on RangeMe, based on overall buyer activity and engagement.

With 18.3% of search volume, the keyword "mushroom" was searched in the context of several categories across the food and beverage and health and beauty care categories, such as "mushroom coffee" and "mushroom supplements." According to the report, this is likely due to their growing popularity for health benefits, as well as the fact that they can serve as both a meat alternative and an ingredient in beverages, snacks and nutritional supplements.

Other popular search terms included toys (10.5%), water (9.6%), pet (8.3%), sunscreen (8%) and candles (7.5%).

RangeMe also saw interest concentrated on particular collections, groups of brands and products that fit a particular theme. Two of its most recently created collections — "Trending on RangeMe" and "Startup Brands" — continued to be among the most visited on the platform, while the "Sustainability" collection, which saw visits drop during the COVID pandemic, is now among the most visited.

Read the full report here.