Trade has been one of the sectors that have most felt the impact of COVID-19, a situation that is directly reflected in people’s consumption habits. As reported by the Colombian newspaper La República, for this year 81% of consumers expect to reduce their spending, only 7% would maintain it and 12% expect to increase their purchases, according to the study ‘Consumer Sentiment’, carried out for four South American countries (Argentina, Colombia, Chile, and Peru) by Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
We have observed that before COVID-19, 51% of Colombian respondents thought that the country would go through a crisis in 2020, with a slightly negative view in the short term; after COVID-19, this feeling increased to two-thirds of the population, and this impacts consumption patterns in terms of volume and categories
Sandro Marzo, partner and managing director of BCG in Colombia, to La República.
Given this scenario, consumers in the countries evaluated will prioritize essential expenditures, such as food (before the pandemic, consumers thought of reducing spending on this item by 30%, now that proportion has dropped to 22%) and financial services (from 20% to 17%), to the detriment of other consumption categories, such as travel (from 33% to 40%).
At the same time, promotions will be even more decisive for consumption in general, including the less essential categories.
