Consumer spending on food and drink is at an all-time high, March was the busiest month on record for UK supermarkets, seeing a 20.6% rise in sales according to eConsultancy.
The weekly shop is back in fashion. Footfall through the shops has dropped with the rise in the uptake of online deliveries and click and collect, but basket spend has increased dramatically. Tesco reported that the number of transactions in April nearly halved, but the size of the average basket had doubled.
The Weekly Shop
The lockdown has brought the UK back to way of shopping 30 years ago. One big weekly shop. Over the last few years consumers have shopped for just 2 – 3 days at a time, popping to the shops multiple times a week for top ups. This gave brands many opportunities to be in front of the consumer, however with just one weekly shop, and many of shopper having a long list of items they need for the week and potentially having children with them too, this time for brands to be seen and stand out on shelf is greatly diminished.
Shoppers are also shopping more locally. Using their local farm shop, or corner store that is within walking distance of their home, rather than using their car to make a journey to a large shop. Revolut recorded a 40% increase in transactions in local convenience store chains during March.
Shoppers are finding increasingly different ways to shop too. Fruit and Veg boxes from local markets and businesses have seen a large increase in uptake due to the lockdown. Shoppers are able to refrain from going to the store to stock up on those fresh items that go out of date quickly and can last longer between shops. It will be interesting to see how this continues after the lockdown is lifted and when people start to return to work and are not at home all day to receive deliveries.
What does this mean for promotions?
Promotions need to be eye-catching, now more than ever. Shoppers just aren’t spending the time in-store browsing the aisles, they are picking up their favoured brand (if they can find it) and continuing with their shop.
Truly think about the rewards being offered to customers, no-one is currently looking to win a holiday abroad with the travel ban in place for the foreseeable future. Mando uses YouGov data to analyse your consumers interests and hobbies to find out what your customers really want.
Many promotions that were launched during or just before lockdown have extended their dates such as the Walkers Taste Icons promotions. Consumers could claim a 2-for-1 at selected restaurants, but the redemption period has now been extended until 3rd December to enable consumers to be able to use their vouchers.
There is no doubt that once the lockdown is lifted that slowly things may go back to how they were. But one thing is for sure is that some habits will have changed and brands will need to entice those customers back to purchase their products. Promotions are a great way to do this, to encourage shoppers back into those familiar purchasing habits and Mando can be on hand to help you with this. Check out our range of case studies here or request a copy of our showcase by emailing us info@mando-europe.co.uk.
