The Covid-19 crisis has changed consumer behaviour, with strong financial concerns among consumers on the one hand and less polluting purchases on the other, according to 2020 data published on Friday 12 March by the European Commission.
38% of Europeans were concerned about paying their bills in the next month (with huge differences between Member States, ranging from 7% to 71%), 42% were considering postponing a major purchase and 80% were not planning to travel until the situation in their country was back to normal.
71% of consumers have shopped online.
56% said that environmental concerns influenced their purchasing decisions and 67% said that they bought products that were better for the environment, even if these products were more expensive. 81% of consumers shopped closer to home and supported local businesses.
Other variables have not changed from previous years. Thus, consumer confidence in retailers remained high (80%), consumer awareness of their rights remained low (27%) and the proportion of consumers facing a purchase problem about which they feel they can legitimately complain remained low (23%).
This data will be discussed at the Consumer Summit on 15 March.
See the data: https://bit.ly/3l9dhWd (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)