February 28th, 2023, Janice Fernandes
As the impact of inflation continues to be felt to varying degrees across the globe, people’s focus on their financial well-being has made them tighten their belts and cut back on expenses. But in which categories have global consumers been most aware of increasing prices, enough to make them want to change brands, shop around, or not buy a product/ service at all?
Polling data from a recent YouGov survey shows 55% of global consumers have been price-conscious in the past six months when purchasing groceries, making it the category that consumers are most price-sensitive about, followed by utilities (36%) and clothing/shoes (35%). Nearly two in ten (18%) are price-conscious about cosmetics and beauty products, putting this category at the same level as car/vehicle and air travel and hotels, but higher than subscription services (16%) and financial and investment products (14%). Video games is the category where consumers have been least likely to be price conscious (9%).
A closer look at consumers across 18 markets who are price conscious when it comes to purchasing cosmetic and beauty products reveals distinct regional trends.
In emerging economies such as India, Indonesia and Mexico, a large proportion of consumers prioritize price, with 26%, 27% and 25% of consumers respectively saying they have either changed brands, shopped around, or not bought a specific beauty product in the last six months.
In contrast, consumers in developed economies like Australia and the United States are less price-conscious about beauty products, with only 15% and 10% respectively, prioritizing price.
However, there are a few exceptions to this trend – consumers in UAE outpace the global respondents with more than two in ten consumers (22%) saying they have been price conscious about cosmetics and beauty products.
Europe presents a more mixed picture. Consumers in Poland are highly price-conscious about cosmetics and beauty products with 32% factoring in cost, followed by Italy (21%) and Spain (20%). Consumers in France (19%) and Germany (18%) are as likely to be price conscious about cosmetics and beauty products as the global audience. On the other hand, consumers in Great Britain (12%), Sweden (11%) and Denmark (8%) are least likely of all to be price conscious.
In this category, younger global respondents aged between 18-24 and 25-34 years are most likely to say they have been price conscious (21% both).
However, in Britain 15% of 25-34-year-olds say they’ve been price conscious about cosmetics and beauty products while 13% of 45-54-year-olds say the same. In the US, while 15% of 18-24-year-olds say they’ve been conscious about the increasing price of cosmetics, the figure drops to 9% among 25-34-year-olds.
Data suggests that while regional trends could inform the strategies of cosmetics and beauty companies, it’s difficult to pinpoint the purchase decision of global consumers demographically.
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Methodology: YouGov Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18+ years in 18 markets with sample sizes varying between 510 and 2044 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in December 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. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.
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