Will consumer spend recover after Lockdown?
When will consumer spending get back to pre-Covid19 levels?
It’s a gigantic question with huge implications for marketing and the world economy. Early clues are coming out and if you know where to look, you will be able to improve your marketing planning.
Frontline consumer research
This week I saw two research reports which start to show clues about how different retail sectors are responding.
The first is from Datamine – an analytics firm – who took credit card transaction data and disaggregated it by spend type to create a year on year comparison of how New Zealanders are buying.
Total online retail spend NZ Feb-Apr 2020
It also provides a breakdown by sector – comparing year on year as well as online versus total spend. Supermarkets and Liquor stores make particularly good reading.
US stimulus cheque spending
Getting insight into how US consumers are using their Government-provided stimulus cheques has come from Klaviyo – this is interesting as it separates “essentials” for households from “New Essentials” which Lockdown has emphasised such as electronics, home improvement and toys/hobbies as well as online entertainment companies.
US stimulus check spend on retail
Do your own research
I’ve done micro-polls on Facebook, and detailed audience surveys from subscribers to website browsers during this recession.
Do your own and use it to interpret this public research into the context of your brand and audience.