Home improvement, bingeing on branded snacks and even self-gifting during the pandemic, were among the few finds of a consumer behavior study launched recently by Nielsen Philippines.
The Neilsen study, which was presented during the webinar “Filipino Consumer Behavior and Retail Updates on COVID-19”, revealed the distinction between the so-called “insulated shopper” and “constrained shopper”.
“While many will continue to stay at home, the impact will not be equal. There are some opportunities for those who still have the money to spend,” said John Patrick Cua, managing director of Nielsen’s retail intelligence business for Philippines, Vietnam and Myanmar.
The study tagged insulated shoppers as those who managed to retain the job they have with sustained, stable income and with money to spare.
“They tend to compensate for out-of-house experience with in-house activities like eating, working, entertaining and grooming within their very homes. Compensation for what they miss from the outside are dealt by scaling up in discretionary snacks, treats and beverages and still have spare for personal grooming,” Cua said.
Constrained shoppers are workers who lost their jobs, those faced with the challenges of compressed income, labor relocation, debt default and those subsisting on the basics with limited or no capability for small luxuries, at all.
The study noted that as the insulated shopper remained cocooned inside the home, there has been a rise in consumption of branded fast moving consumer goods.
Sales of branded snacks like fresh milk have gone up 47 percent, imported chips by 35 to 48 percent, imported cookies by 28 percent, branded chocolates by 12 percent, imported noodles and branded coffee by 43 and 17 percent, respectively.
Constrained shoppers who can still afford little luxuries tend to buy small things, but only for their kids.
Despite the stark differences both categories have, when faced with priorities both agreed that food comes first and the comfort of the family is next followed by cleaning essentials.
While many have tried and continue to buy from online platforms, offline channels continue to be the preferred mode of transaction.
Nielsen found out that among the virtual shopping platforms, a great deal of transaction were dealt in social app Facebook.
Livestreaming, seller to consumer exchanges and door to door delivery stood out as the reason why many small sellers and buyers have turned to Facebook for their purchases.
More than 50 percent of respondents said they enjoy buying from online aggregators and would continue to buy from them because of a good assortment of products and standard delivery time and fees.
Cua said the behavioral changes that emerged during the difficult time may stick into the future creating new retail opportunities.
