RETAIL ENVIRONMENT
COVID-19 changing shopper behaviour
Fears around the Coronavirus have had a profound impact on shopper behaviour with increases in abuse, threats and assaults and a switch in store loyalty – from supermarket to convenience stores, according to two new pieces of research.
Shopworkers’ union Usdaw says cases of abuse and violence against retail workers have collectively doubled since March 14, according to the findings of its Coronavirus survey.
In the last 34 days, 62.2 per cent of shopworkers had been verbally abused, 29 per cent had been threatened and 4 per cent had reported a physical assault by a member of the public, based on 4,928 responses.
The union said that extrapolated across the 3 million strong UK retail workforce, this amounted to over 3,500 assaults per day since the coronavirus pandemic gripped the country.
In a separate Government survey, the lockdown has transformed shopping habits among UK consumers, with 61 per cent of shoppers now visiting supermarkets less frequently, in favour of corner shops.
A survey of 1,646 adults, compiled by YouGov, found that consumers have been visiting different types of shops to get their essentials, as pressure on supply chains and bulk buying led to almost all shoppers (93 per cent) struggling to find the products they needed.
Nearly a quarter (23 per cent) said they had increased visits to local corner shops, with nearly 80 per cent of shoppers saying they considered them an essential service.
However, despite predictions that social distancing would drive up online sales, nearly a quarter (24 per cent) said they had shopped online less frequently than normal for non-essential items.
Meanwhile, demand for food deliveries and essential items online is up 16 per cent, according to the survey. More than half (54 per cent) of those shopping for essentials online said they had experienced difficulties in sourcing the products they need, compared to 39 per cent of shoppers who had encountered shortages in the supermarket.
Commenting on the findings, Joel Kempson, personal finance expert at money.co.uk, said: “It is unsurprising that consumers have changed the way they buy essentials since lockdown began - these figures highlight how well people are following the government guidelines to shop as infrequently as possible.
“Additionally, with over 63 per cent of businesses reporting reduced turnover due to the effects of COVID-19, a quarter of UK businesses coming to a temporary halt and 21,000 closing down all together, shoppers are no doubt going to be managing their money and watching spending habits very carefully.”
A new app has been developed that informs shoppers about the size of queues outside their local supermarkets.
'Supermarket Check-In' is available to download on iOS and Android devices, aiming to make shopping easier during the lockdown.
Since the lockdown was imposed on 23 March, supermarkets have enforced limits on the amount of people allowed in store to enable social distancing, often leading to long queues outside.
The free app was created by a furloughed web developer, and collates data from users to rank supermarkets by both length of queues and stock availability. It is hoped that accuracy will improve as the amount of people using it grows.
Despite only being a few weeks old, Supermarket Check-In has been downloaded over 50,000 times on Google Play and is the second most popular app in the social networking category on Apple App Store.
