CAPE TOWN - Nielsen Shop Shifting Report released on Wednesday found that Covid-19 had changed the way consumers shopped and the these patterns “will more than likely never return”.
Nielsen Global Connect executive Director Ailsa Wingfield said, “The second quarter of 2020 was the defining quarter for consumers and retail around the world where lockdowns and movement restrictions changed work, home and shopping routines forever.”
Looking specifically at South Africa, Nielsen reported that between March to August, 35 percent of modern trade and convenience stores accounted for 80 percent of spend, increasing by a massive 9 percentage points, or26 percent, on 2019, indicating greater fragmentation of stores now accounted for the majority of sales.
It said that within that overall figure, the composition of changes was immense. There were clear shifts from a 2 percent movement of stores falling out of the Golden Store category and 2 percent from new stores moving into the Golden Store category. This figure, from new and old golden store shifts, totalled a considerable 14 percent change within modern trade -hypermarkets and supermarkets - stores in particular.
Wingfield said: “But today, because of Covid health concerns, quarantines, and ongoing self-isolation, that store choice has been pushed out of busy commercial centres into outer lying areas and far closer to where people live. It is this, seemingly innocuous shift that has tipped the retail landscape on its head.
“This will continue as markets resettle and consumers rebase their home, work and travel routines and while we are likely to see many people return to work, and a natural return to some old shopping behaviours, there will be huge populations of people who will not. ”
BUSINESS REPORT