A new study by Nielsen has found that South African shoppers are dropping products from their weekly shopping lists to save money, with the three most-affected categories including Household/Cleaning Goods, Beverages and Toiletries.
The Nielsen Shoppergraphics Report analysed shifts in consumer purchasing behaviour across 4,000 representative households, and found that South African shoppers are now 'hyper aware' of what they are purchasing, amidst rising prices for everyday products and utilities.
Spiralling Costs
“It’s no secret that South African consumers are experiencing a severe wallet squeeze thanks to a raft of rising costs including spiralling petrol and electricity prices, the implementation of sugar tax and a VAT increase to 15%," commented Nielsen CPG Client Service Director Kelly Arnold.
"The effect that this has had on consumer behaviour is profound and we’re now clearly seeing shoppers jumping out of some categories and consolidating their spend.”
Shoppers are also limiting the number of shopping trips they take, to 60 trips a year on average, while the 'top-up shop' that used to take place twice or three times a week has been reduced to once every two weeks, with spend per trip declining to R210 (around €13.50).
Overall the volume of sales has grown by 2.8%, with the monetary value of sales growing at about 6.3%," Nielsen said.
Larger Pack Sizes
“That said, we’re simply not seeing massive growth with consumers shopping less and spending slightly less; although there are instances of upgrading to larger pack sizes which may be a contributory factor to the small levels of growth," said Arnold.
“Interestingly, the repertoire or number of stores that consumers visit has increased to 4.9 retailers a year. This is as extremely price conscious consumers seek out deals, and are more prepared to shop around.”
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
