Inflationary pressures this past year shrunk product packages, shortened receipts and delayed consumers’ spending plans. But compared to 2022, were consumers more or less likely to adopt budget-friendly shopping behaviors in 2023?
According to a YouGov survey for which consumers across 17 international markets were polled, shoppers were slightly less likely to adopt cost-cutting shopping behaviors in 2023 compared to 2022. For example, nearly half (49%) of all consumers across markets shopped around for better prices in 2022. This figure dropped to 46% in 2023.
Last year, consumers were less likely to buy lower- priced versions of the products they usually buy (38%) compared to 2022 (43%). It's not a different story when it comes to buying in smaller quantities (31%, down from 36%) and delaying or spreading out purchases (23%, down from 27%).
The only exception? Across both years, two in ten consumers (20%) shopped at supermarkets different from the ones they usually visit, to reduce costs.
YouGov’s demographic data reveals that women were more likely than men in 2023 to adopt cost-cutting shopping behaviors. Nearly half of all women (48%) shopped around for better prices - 45% of men did the same.
A little over two in five women (41% in 2023, down from 46% in 2022) bought lower-priced versions of products they normally buy and so did 36% of men (down from 41% in 2022).
We now look at whether consumers adopted any cost-cutting behavior last year, by market.
Consumers in Indonesia (from 96% in 2022, to 93% in 2023) and UAE (from 93% to 91%) continue to lead when it comes to taking any cost-reducing action like changing supermarkets or delaying purchases. Canada (88%), Singapore (87%) and Australia (85%) are some of the other markets where consumers were most likely to have adopted such behaviors when shopping in 2023.
In Europe, equal proportions of consumers in Spain (83%) and Poland (83%) took steps to cut costs in 2023 - the most likely in this region. Conversely, Swedes (72%) were the least likely to do so.
In 2022, roughly 80% of US consumers say they took steps to bring costs down, however, the share of consumers who adopted such behaviors in 2023 dropped to 71% - the least likely of all markets surveyed.
Danes account for the most notable change in shopping behavior compared to 2022. For instance, 77% of Danes took action to reduce their expenditures when shopping in 2023. This figure marks a ten-point drop from the 87% reported in 2022.
Australia is the only market where consumers are going against the trend. In 2022, 85% of consumers took some sort of action to reduce costs when shopping. In 2023, that figure increased marginally to 87%.
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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 17 markets with sample sizes varying between 500 and 2001 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in November 2023. 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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