Study: COVID-19 Impacts Consumers’ Thanksgiving Spending
According to a recent SmartCommerce study, COVID-19 is changing how consumers plan to spend the Thanksgiving holiday. The August survey asked 600 consumers how they plan to spend Thanksgiving this year, and the majority of respondents (36.67%) said they'll be spending it at home without guests, compared to last year when only 21.79% spent it at home alone. Consumers will be traveling less, with 25.5% of consumers stating that they'll be visiting family and friends, compared to 37.18% last year.
How did you spend Thanksgiving Day LAST year?
|
At home without guests |
21.79% |
|
At home with guests |
39.74% |
|
I will be visiting family or friends |
37.18% |
|
I will be traveling and staying at a hotel/airbnb |
1.28% |
How are you planning to spend Thanksgiving Day THIS year?
|
At home without guests |
36.67% |
|
At home with guests |
20.00% |
|
I will be visiting family or friends |
25.50% |
|
I will be traveling and staying at a hotel/airbnb |
0.67% |
|
Not sure yet because of COVID-19 |
17.17% |
How consumers plan to spend Thanksgiving isn't the only thing that looks different this year. COVID-19 has had a massive impact on the way consumers buy their groceries, with a surge in online grocery shopping. For many, buying groceries online has become the norm. In fact, our research shows that only 20% of online grocery shoppers will return to brick-and-mortar only buying when the pandemic is over. 56% of consumers said they'll be doing at least some of their Thanksgiving grocery shopping online this year.
How are you going to do grocery shopping for Thanksgiving Day?
|
I will order everything online |
25.29% |
|
I will order some things online, but I will also go to a grocery store |
30.88% |
|
I will go to a grocery store |
43.82% |
At the onset of the pandemic, consumers reported issues with online grocery shopping including delays and difficulty with ordering. In April, 17.24% of consumers stated that their last delivery was delayed, and 60.75% reported that it was easy to make an order. In the August study, only 8.08% of consumers reported a delayed delivery, and nearly 75% said their order was easy.
Think about your last ONLINE grocery order. Which of the following apply?
|
It was easy to order |
74.13% |
|
Delivery/Pick-up was on-time |
60.05% |
|
Some items I ordered were sold out |
35.10% |
|
Some items I ordered were substituted with something familiar |
32.33% |
|
Delivery was delayed |
8.08% |
|
I had to join a waiting list before I could shop |
7.39% |
|
My order was cancelled |
2.08% |
|
I was unable to schedule a Delivery/Pick-up time |
0.69% |
|
Other |
0.69% |
SmartCommerce will continue to monitor consumer trends as we navigate out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Visit smartcommerce.co for more information.
SmartCommerce aims to help CPG companies sell more online by replacing old-school “where to buy” with a single click to send products into retailer carts. Built for the unique needs of CPG brands and their consumers, SmartCommerce intelligently eliminates both the friction and PDP cross-selling that has limited the potential for CPG digital purchases, by enabling simple one-click conversions of one or many products from any digital impulse point, into virtually any retailer cart.