All articles and blogs

COVID-19 has led to a change in channel shopper profiles, behaviours, wants and needs. Many shoppers have been attracted to online shopping as they have wanted to avoid going into stores because of safety concerns , and for many it simply fits in with their new lifestyles. As record numbers of shoppers are shopping online, delivery has never been so important. And as a result, growing numbe...

What a year 2020 has been so far! With everything that has been going on, it is easy to forget that Christmas is less than three months away. Local lockdowns and the ‘rule of 6’ mean that Christmas is likely to be very different this year.  So how will this impact food and grocery shopping? Uncertainty will make it harder to plan Changing guidelines and the unpredictability of COVID-19 make...

Six months ago, in the height of the first COVID-19 lockdown, we conceived of the Shoppers of Our Time project as a way of tracking the response of shoppers to the unprecedented circumstances we had found ourselves in, and how they then returned to normal once the crisis abated. Little did we imagine at the time that half a year later not only would COVID-19 still be a thing, but actually it wo...

We are really pleased to be able to finally share with you our UK food-to-go market forecasts . These forecasts have been months in the making with the team thinking through the potential scenarios as to how the balance of 2020 and the next two years could pan out. The challenges of 2020 for food-to-go are well known and we believe the impact of COVID-19 will continue to be felt over the ne...

One month after lockdown our health tracking recorded that more than four in ten shoppers (41% in April 2020) stated that they almost/mostly eat healthy food and drink and that 89% are actively trying to improve their diet in some way.  But how has this been impacted by COVID-19, when how we buy, prepare, eat and even value food changed for us all? Shopper’s aspire to be healthy, but it doe...

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a lot of uncertainties regarding students returning to school in the UK. Parents are equipping their children with new school essentials such as face masks, hand sanitisers and disinfectant wipes to ensure they are safe. With many changes in the way school will be conducted such as no school meals, retailers in the UK are providing inspiration and solutions to he...

Over the bank holiday weekend we asked 2,000 shoppers about their plans for the break, to see whether this bank holiday – being the first of 2020 not under total lockdown – would be treated differently to a normal bank holiday, perhaps with a bigger celebration or a specific event. What we found was a tale of two groups – younger shoppers, who had bigger plans for the weekend than normal and ol...

Like many others in the 18-24 age bracket, lockdown brought on a different way of life for me. When at first, I expected my older relatives to find lockdown the hardest, it has turned out to be my friends who have struggled the most. Living in London, most of us live in small flats and house shares – because we spent most of our lives ‘out and about’. Our homes suddenly transformed from bein...

A lot has changed since we spoke to our Shoppers of Our Time community in May and June, with lockdown restrictions and social distancing rules changing, shops and schools reopening, and a slow return to workplaces. We caught up with the thirty members of our community in early July through video calls, and followed this up with a survey of 2,000 people. In-home may remain the new out-of-h...

As Poundland resume their plan to roll out its new chilled and frozen range to a further 19 stores following a successful trial at the end of last year we explore shopper’s thoughts. The roll-out, which was planned in March, was put on hold due to the pandemic whilst Poundland focussed on keeping as many stores open during the crises. The next 19 stores to get an aisle of fridges and fr...