Since last September we have been running the ‘New-Era’ tracker monthly to understand consumer behaviour throughout the first pandemic experienced by our generation. Now that we are in the final stages of the COVID exit roadmap this will be the final instalment of insights from this tracker as now that we have returned to some degree of normality changes in behaviour are beginning to stabilise.

Detailed below are some of the key take outs from the final Q2 (April to June 2021) report.

Food Choices

• Interest in Fermented foods grew in Q2, which may be due to people taking on new hobbies throughout lockdown.
• Consumers continued to be healthy, enjoying vitamin enriched diets, and enjoying healthy snacks more frequently.

Online Shopping

• Consumers may have visited shops more frequently, but they also participated in more online shopping, maybe due to many people returning back to work after furlough and therefore more disposable income at their fingertips, socialising and attending more events and therefore have a greater need to buy more items.

Frozen Category Instore

• New and innovative products were seen in both frozen fruit & veg and meat & fish aisles. Several brands have been launching new products and these may have recalled by consumers, and it may be impacted by more instore shopping.

Eating Out

• As lockdown relaxation steps were put in place during Q2, an increase in consumer spend correlated with this.
• But with this relaxation there was heightened anxiety among some consumers; only wanting to go out for special occasions.

Economy

• Confidence in the economy grew in Q2, most likely driven by the COVID exit roadmap driving positivity among consumers.