- The urge to cut prices and offer better deals is strong in a recession
- Shoppers are still poles apart in terms of confidence and pain in the recession
- Long-term trends suggest a more considered approach to purchases
- Shoppers feel major UK stores are becoming overwhelmed with promotions
- Too many promotions can undermine brands
Earlier this year, we looked at the impact of the recession on household budgets and the strategies that shoppers were turning to in order to deal with budget limitations. Since then, much has changed: unemployment has increased, some businesses are keeping jobs but are cutting pay or hours, and the cost living has gone up. So it seemed a good time to take another look at how shoppers are dealing with the rapidly changing circumstances they are facing.
Shoppercentric recently conducted interviews among shoppers, this time taking a closer look at how they were coping with the boom in promotions on-shelf. But the questions repeated from the January study also highlighted a sense of polarisation within the UK shopping population: Those claiming they felt they would be safe from the recession increased from 4% to 6% in April. This may appear a minor shift but extrapolated to the UK shopper population, it reflects half a million shoppers. At the other end of the spectrum, in January 24% of shoppers claimed they had had to make major changes to their household spending or were struggling to pay bills. This has now increased to 26%