How will COVID 19 change our consumption habits?

If you ask me to name one thing which I’ve learned out of this COVID 19 crisis as a consumer, not as a marketer, my answer would be, that I have been consuming a lot of things which are not really essential for me.

All these years, as consumers we’ve lived with this illusion that we are unable to live without certain consumption habits. Now that’s going to be challenged in this new reality.

As companies come out from this crisis, many are likely to face changing consumer behaviors and attitudes like the one I mentioned before. What are these changes to expect?

According to a survey done by Statista among the Chinese consumers as they came out of Coronavirus crisis in February, these are the top six changes in their consumer behavior.

38% of the consumers say, they are going to save more money for the future. 20% of the consumers say that they will try to understand the prices of products, and the value it offers. 8% say they will make more rational consumption decisions, another 8% will reduce consumption in advance, and a 6% of the consumers are going to trim their expenses.

One thing to take out from this Statista survey is, that the consumers will think twice before impulse buying in the future. 

For decades, under the capitalist creed, we have been programmed by media and marketing to impulsively buy stuff that we really don’t need. 

Now that for nearly a month we are being trained to live only with the essential goods to survive, we will habitually prolong this consumption pattern for at least another year or two.

Next, It’s an obvious thing that eCommerce going to come out as the clear winner of this crisis. As people will feel skeptical to gather in large crowds in supermarkets and open marketplaces, more and more people will turn to eCommerce as their source of daily and weekly grocery needs.

Third, Consumers will look for digital versions of everything. Now that they are more comfortable dealing with online banking and eCommerce, they will look for digital solutions in education, healthcare, insurance and all sorts of products and services. 

Before this crisis started, we saw an upward trend in Sri Lankan culture for eating out and restaurant food. Post-crisis, we will see declining demand for eating out and take-away restaurants as people will be more health-conscious.

Lots of speculations are out there that this is going to hurt the travel and leisure industry for a long time. 

Well; I have some different opinions about this, which might be good news for those who are in the travel industry. 

In my view, the hard-core travel enthusiasts will always want to continue their adventures despite what has happened. 

Yes, they will comply to the requests by authorities to lock themselves down in their homes when needed, but as soon the situation turns to better we will see a sudden increase in the leisure travel industry. 

However, the leisure traveler will not behave the same as they used to be. He will be more responsible in his choices. He will avoid crowded resorts and will look for smaller less crowded destinations. And he will travel lighter and greener than ever, creating more opportunities for smaller players in the leisure industry. 

Conclusion:

Well; that was my take on what are going to be the changes in consumer behaviour after the COVID 19 crisis.

What do you think about this? I would love to hear your opinions as well and I would love to see if you can add anything as a comment to this video which I may have missed to add.