IRI has released its latest Consumer Spending Tracker covering the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, US, New Zealand, Greece and the Netherlands. It uses point of sale (POS) data from major grocery retailers to provide insights on how the coronavirus crisis is impacting the industry and consumer buying behaviour.
Consumers in most countries now appear to be shifting to steady-state purchasing post-stockpiling. In the UK, total sales were up by only 1.9% year-on-year in the week to 5 April.
Sales of alcohol, packaged food, frozen food, and toilet roll continued to post strong growth, while general merchandise and cosmetics sales slid by a third. The fastest-growing sub-category was baking goods, up 49.3%, followed by canned meat and sausages.
Tim Dummer, Commercial Director at IRI, commented: “Since the initial stockpiling, and as social distancing restrictions limit retailers’ capacity to service many more customers in stores, the UK market has begun to adjust to the new ‘lockdown norm’ and we see grocery sales begin to stabilise.
“UK shoppers continue to shop less frequently but spend much more each time. In some retailers, we have seen [the amount spent on each visit] nearly double compared with previous-year levels.”
The full IRI report can be downloaded here (PDF)
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