Mumbai: Covid has impacted lives and the economy immensely since 2020. As a result all industries have reported a marked decline in overall sales. With almost two years of the pandemic underway, festival habits have also changed and evolved during this time. With the festive season approaching yet again, it is time to take a step back and look at new and emerging trends shaping consumer behaviour.
Snapbizz conducted a study on the FMCG sector and found that there have been fluctuations in the sales across various categories between 2019 to 2021, with 2021 showing a steep rise. This is an ongoing study that Snapbizz has been conducting from the first quarter of 2019, monitoring 2000 kirana stores as the sample size. There has been a marked shift in consumer buying behavior over the last three years, quarter on quarter.
Statistics show that FMCG sales-
- Increased by 11% in the Q1’20 as compared to the same period in 2019 and increased by 8-9% in Q1 of 2021 from Q1’20
- Q2’20 sales increased by 9% as compared to Q2 of 2019 while in Q2’21, the sales increased significantly by 36% as compared to Q2’20
- The Q3’20 sales increased by 8-9% as compared to Q3 of 2019, but Q3’21 showed a marked increase with 18% more sales as compared to Q3’20
Prem Kumar, Founder & CEO, Snapbizz, says, “The pandemic has affected all of us in some way or the other and unfortunately it has affected small businesses very badly. But I am glad to see that they have picked up the speed of recovery from losses because of the festive season where they have seen an increase in their sales. We have also seen that there is a significant change in the buying behavior of the consumers as many of them prefer to shop online than stepping outside to make a purchase”.
Festive season has given an opportunity for retailers to recover from losses occurred during the covid lockdowns. Kirana stores have been making the best of the festival season by offering their customers discounts and reward points on products to result in more sales. For example, some products such as oil and ghee are on display at the counters, with some seasonal festive offer packs.
Other highlights of the study:
- An increase in the sales of Beverages in Q2 of 2021 as compared to Q2 of 2020.
- The Packaged foods category has seen a significant decline in sales consistently, while the packaged staples segment saw an increase in the Q2 of 2021 as compared to 2020.
- Data from Q1 of 2021 has shown a rapid decrease in the sales of both personal care items and household items. However, data from Q2 of 2021 has demonstrated a slow increase in the sales of personal care items, while it has continued to decrease for household items.
- Seasonal offer packs are also being sold a lot, which increases the store’s sales by 5-10%. Retailers are offering schemes that encourage customers to buy in bulk.
- Covid has affected the customer’s buying habits as people are staying mostly at homes and doing shopping online from kirana stores through Whatsapp and other customized apps and websites.
- Despite this, a few FMCG items have seen a spike in sales. Products from the categories like household cleaning, Health drinks & food grocery like Atta, Rice Masala, Oil, Fast Food, and Ready to eat, dry fruits are being bought more.
- Beauty products sales have reduced as the events and functions have reduced and hence retailers are stocking less of beauty products and more of Health related products like Energy drinks.
If we look at post-covid festive season, people are now shifting their focus to healthier items such as dry fruits, energy and health drinks that would improve their health. Before covid, people would buy oil tins but now this has become a matter of the past. Now most of the people prefer buying oil packets. There has been a sharp decrease in sales of beauty products as people aren’t going out or attending events and hence there is not much need for these products.
Kirana stores are leveraging Snapbizz technology to tide up during the festive season. They have been using SB supply chain solutions to ensure optimization of inventory and smart procurement. The online app snap order which delivers storefront has been used extensively during the festival season; shopkeepers believe that they have opened stores in every house. The customized shop stores’ offers and creation of festive season baskets for customers extensively. Brands have also been running many consumer offers using the consumer engagement features of Snapbizz like printing consumer offers on bill, putting banners on the consumer app, sending special SMS and greetings to the customers. There has been a spike in the credit given to the consumers by the stores during the festive season period and retailers have been using our Katha book feature to remind customers.
