How the Pandemic Impacted Consumer Behavior

November 5, 2021

The understatement of the year—the pandemic has changed the world as we know it. It’s no secret. You know it, I know it, and brands know it, too. In order to brave the storm of the pandemic, brands have had to change their tune in order to cater to the everchanging nature of consumer attitudes. According to management consulting company McKinsey and Company, here are a few ways that consumer behavior has evolved since the beginning of the pandemic:

  1. We want to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Both optimism and spending has grown primarily among higher-income and younger consumers with a “spending growth of 11% and 15%”, respectively.
  2. We still like having the (retail) world at our fingertips. If it wasn’t widespread enough already, online shopping sales have skyrocketed by 30% compared to pre-pandemic times.
  3. We’re all homebodies—to an extent. The Delta variant, as well as overall increased caution, has caused “out-of-home entertainment” spending to take a backseat to the thriving homebody economy consisting of electronics and home improvement.
  4. We’re stepping out of our comfort zones. For some of us, the days are long gone where we reach for the same exact product we’ve used since high school. 40% of consumers that switched brands since the beginning of the pandemic cite different reasons: for older folks, it was “value and availability,” and for the younger crowd, “value and purpose”.
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