As the Coronavirus continues to be front and center for most of the world, we are all aware of the growing impact on day to day activities and life. Reports on the run on toilet paper and other commodities are broadcast daily. Nielsen has recognised six specific consumer behaviour patterns that related directly to our concerns about the pandemic.
- Proactive health-minded buying – consumer interest in products that support overall health and wellness increases.
- Reactive health management – consumers begin to focus on products that are critical for virus containment, health and public safety.
- Pantry preparation – consumers stockpile shelf-stable foods and a wider range of health and safety products with an increase in store visits and larger purchases.
- Quarantined living preparations – there is an increase in online shopping, a reduction in store visits and a run on certain commodities placing a strain on the supply chain.
- Restricted living – consumers begin to minimize shopping, including reducing on-line orders and prices rise as reduced stock availability impacts prices.
- Living a new normal – we return to our daily routines but with a new sense of awareness focused on health and safety. Permanent changes to the supply chain, the use of online shopping and hygiene practices.
In a statement released by Scott McKenzie, Nielsen’s global intelligence leader, he noted “We’re already seeing additional markets enter the threshold of restricted living. As patterns begin to emerge in response to news events of this nature, it will be imperative for companies to learn from these scenarios so they can sustain growth in times where COVID-19 has uprooted people’s lives. These patterns will help provide leading and trailing indicators to those trying to understand how people will respond as developments continue to play out at different times in different countries.”[1]
While this pandemic will continue to impact our daily lives and routines for the foreseeable future, it will be temporary and will ultimately help contain and restrict the spread and impact of COVID-19. As long as we all continue to follow a few critical rules – repeated hand washing and social distancing – this will pass with minimal lasting impacts on all of us.
At Source we are dedicated to ensuring that our team remains healthy and available to continue to help our clients meet their business objectives of growing their businesses by entering or increasing their existing footprint in the Canadian market. Whether you are looking at new food, dietary supplement or cosmetic products for the Canadian market we are available to assist you with all your regulatory and packaging compliance needs to be ready to get new products on the shelf when we all return to our normally daily routines.
Stay safe and remember to look out for your friends and neighbours and remember we will get past this and things will return to normal.
The old adage of a bit of short term pain for long term gain was never more apt.
[1] Originally published in https://www.specialtyfoods.com/new/article/Nielsen-idientifies-coronavirus-buying-patterns
