Bargain hunting down in 2023, compared to 2022

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.\

Photo by Dan Burton on Unsplash