We often think of consumer behaviour in within a set framework of possibilities. As marketers, we tailor our activities to minor shifts (trends) in that behaviour. In these trying times we simply must rely on data to identify not only what consumers want, but what they desire enough to purchase.
As the Affiliate industry offers a diverse cross section of consumer sales data, we are seeing a relatively clear picture of just how consumers are spending during this period of uncertainty.
According to Awin Nordics data related to the MoM period of February and March, there are clear and instructive positives to go with some obvious pain points.
The negative elements of this picture are directly contradicted by consumer behaviour in purely discretionary, as well as home life related sales categories.
This performance may be indicative of a larger scale shift from offline to online purchasing. For instance, a decidedly clear shift from offline to online is illustrated by one of Sweden’s largest retailers H&M. The retailer saw online sales in March 2020 increase by 17 percent in local currencies. Online sales are still open in 47 of the groups 51 online markets.
There are of course drastic dips in sales performance across all travel related sectors. The below data while troubling, is clearly not based on purely discretionary consumer spending. For all intents and purposes, the Nordics are in a state of at best, limited lockdown. Therefore, consumer spending in the below categories are necessarily shelved.
As the need to avoid public transport has increased, so have sales for automotive related shops. It is unclear if this is correlative or causal.
If there’s any topic you’d like us to investigate further, please drop us an email.
