A recent survey by Empathy Research has revealed that grocery shopping behaviour changes significantly at a national level across the summer, with almost 3 in 4 adults (74%) claiming they change their grocery shopping behaviour throughout the summer. According to the survey of 1,002 adults, females (79%) are significantly more likely to change their behaviour than males across the summer months.
When we examine this expected change by age group, evidence of this strong shift in shopping behaviour is apparent across all ages, with lowest likelihood of change amongst those aged over 55, where just over half (55%) claim their shopping behaviour will change over the summer months. Little difference evident across regions further endorses this national shift in grocery shopping behaviour.
So, what changes are actually made by shoppers? The good news for retailers is that changes made by shoppers over the summer months are more likely to result in increased spend. Just over 4 in 10 (44%) of those who change their grocery shopping behaviour claim they will spend more over the summer months than at other times throughout the year.
There will also be an increased number of shopping trips made, with a sizeable proportion of grocery shoppers (41%), claiming this will be the case for them. There will be a relatively small proportion of shoppers who will either reduce the amount they spend or number of visits made, averaging at 13% for both aspects. Trolley composition will also change significantly for shoppers.
With widespread behavioural change ahead this summer, we asked if retailers were doing enough in-store to promote summer products. For a sizeable proportion of the population, there is work to do for retailers with almost 1 in 5 (17%) claiming retailers could do more in-store to promote summer purchases and offer a better range of summer products.
For further information relating to who will be shopping and spending more this summer, the changes shoppers will make to their trolley composition, along with the types of products shoppers would like to see retailers offer more of this summer, please contact Robbie Clarke at Empathy Research.
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