The Covid-19 crisis pushes Mass Consumption

The ‘Tsunami’ caused by the Covid-19 situation implied a ‘New Ordinary Life’ we are getting used day by day. It had a great impact on many economic and social sectors that are currently trying to recover after the months of lockdown. Nevertheless, according to the Balance of Distribution and Mass Consumption in Spain shown by the consulting company Kantar, the crisis ‘determined an exponential growth of Mass Consumption during the first semester of Y 2020 increasing by 13.9% compared to the same period of the previous year’.  

The pandemic scenario showed that distribution has been an essential service and one of the key roles during the human health crisis. The lockdown has increased at home consumption, Despite the fact that, this trend a is currently decreasing as consumption outside home has restarted, the numbers are still high.

The winners of this scenario have been e-commerce and local trade. Particularly increased during the lockdown, e-commerce keeps on growing by 0.7%. Even though they are not reaching the same growth as during the lockdown (up to 4.2% in comparison with Y 2019), local supermarkets increased their sales by 1.6% during the first semester.

The lockdown also modified customer purchasing habits and the new ones seem to last for 1 season at least. The study showed that Spanish consumers prefer to go shopping less frequently than before as they prefer to buy as much as possible just once. The act of purchase decreases by 0.7% during the pre-Covid period, reaches 39.2% during the lockdown and currently increases by 26.4%.

Kantar estimates that some consumer trends are quickly increasing: the research of health (we are more focused on it than before), of pleasure (the restrictions in the entertainment and food services are compensated by new activities at home), the need of time-saving (expressed by the increase in the consumption of frozen products).

New consumer habits, ‘new ordinary life’… No doubt, the new scenario requires new solutions from manufacturers and distributors to cope with new consumer needs. These new challenges may imply big opportunities.