Global: Will inflation cause consumers to cut back on buying groceries and clothes?

Across the globe, inflation is pushing up the prices of everything from fuel to food. And consumers are noticing a significant rise in the costs of groceries and clothing in the past year. In a recent survey, we ask consumers across 18 markets if their household budget is squeezed as a result of increases in the cost of living, in which areas would they first make cutbacks.

Clothing (46%) makes it to the top three of the categories which consumers are likely to cut back on to stay within budget. Comparatively, the share of consumers who pick ‘groceries’ (24%) is halved.

Clothing

Italy (55%), Britain (53%) and France (52%) register the highest proportion of consumers who are willing to cut back on their clothes shopping if rising inflation limits their budget. The rest of the European markets register slightly less than half of consumers willing to cutback, but the figure is still over two in five in every country – Germany (47%), Denmark (46%), Spain (46%), Sweden (45%), Poland (45%).

While European consumers are more likely to cut down on shopping for clothes, the US is slightly less likely to see a similar trend. Around two in five Americans (44%) pick ‘clothing’ as the area where they would make cutbacks to save money. Mexico is least likely of all markets to see clothing come under pressure (34%). Canada (50%) is the only North American market to outpace the global audience (46%).

In APAC, almost half of consumers in Singapore and India (49%) are likely to cut back on buying clothes in the event of having to limit their monthly expenses. On the other hand, Indonesia (38%) and China (35%) are among the least likely markets to curtail their apparel shopping habits.

Groceries

As a daily essential, groceries don’t register a high proportion of global consumers who are willing to cut back if their household budget is squeezed. While overall slightly less than a quarter of consumers indicate a willingness to cut back on groceries, over a third of Britons (34%) would do the same.

Canada (31%) and US (30%) also register around a third of consumers who will look at cutting down on groceries to limit their expenses. Mexico is among the least likely markets to cut down on grocery expenses, registering less than two in ten consumers (14%).

In APAC, Australia (31%) registers among the highest proportion of consumers who would consider cutting back on grocery purchases. India registers a little over a quarter of consumers (28%) who would do the same. However, China (18%) and Hong Kong (15%) register less than two in ten consumers, while in Indonesia around one in ten consumers (11%), the lowest in all 18 markets, are prepared to cut back in this area.

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Methodology: The data is based on the interviews of adults aged 18 and over in 18 markets with sample sizes varying between 508 and 2,065 for each market. All interviews were conducted online in May 2022. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples.