Consumers not interested in shopping but do want to socialise says Kantar

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jun 3, 2020

UK consumers are looking forward to socialising and getting out of their homes to take part in plenty of activities that have been banned during the lockdown and this could bode well for future fashion purchases, new figures have shown this week.

Kantar Media collected data from social media conversations between the first week of the lockdown and the first week of May. And while it found that ‘going shopping’ has seen no rise in anticipation, other activities that might require a shopping trip are being eagerly anticipated.

And this news could be useful to retailers as they prepare to reopen in the middle of this month as it could help them tailor their marketing messages in the weeks ahead.

In the early days of the lockdown, beauty treatments were a key focus, with eating out or going to the cinema next on the priority list, followed by activities such as nights out/drinks with friends or going to live events. But the percentages were relatively modest at the time.

However after six weeks, chatter around nights out and drinks with friends had risen by more than 3,000% while interest in going to live events was up over 1,000%. Meanwhile, desire to travel had risen more than 2,200%. All of these activities have led to purchases of new clothes, accessories and shoes in the past, and are likely to drive such purchases in the near future too.

Overall, Kantar said that consumer desire to get outside post-Covid-19 increased 493% between late March and early May.

So despite chatter around going shopping coming very low down on the list during May, the chances are that newly sociable consumers will want to invest in something new to wear.

Andrew Nelson, Client Director, Social Media Insight, at Kantar Media, said: “This data, pulled from social media, offers brands and businesses critical insight into what consumer behaviour might look like as lockdown eases here in the UK. We can see that six weeks into the lockdown, people are most looking forward to going to the pub, nights out with friends and live events, proving that above all, people miss people. Social mentions of looking forward to going to the pub have increased an enormous 3,064% since lockdown began.”