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The end of August and beginning of September means that we are now one year on from the lowest point in our shopper confidence index, when the score hit -27 – a full 14 points lower than it had been at the peak of the horsemeat scandal in 2013, and 16 points lower than it had been mid-lockdown in April 2020. Last August, shoppers were grappling with news that energy bills for Autumn 2022 woul...

Our 2023 Category Benchmarks launched in July , and we have now reached the half-way point in our corresponding topic-based report series. With four reports in our Category Benchmarks series already published, including the latest on choice, availability and ease of shop , and driving in-store conversion , here’s a summary of what we’ve seen so far. Private label vs brands Our two-part...

With a new school year just around the corner, shoppers will be undertaking their back-to-school shopping during a cost-of-living crisis for the second year in a row. Last year we found 64% of shoppers were concerned about the cost of back-to-school products , with 44% claiming they would buy fewer items as a result. This year will be no different as shoppers remain concerned with the cost o...

The second quarter of 2023 has brought a variety of challenges for food-to-go consumers. With interest rates now at their highest level since April 2008 , what behaviour did we see from food-to-go customers over the past few months to balance their budgets? 1. Efforts to save money have largely been offset by rising prices As prices rise, food-to-go shoppers have reduced the frequency of...

Shopper confidence improved again in July, as shoppers felt less pessimistic – even if they aren’t quite optimistic yet. There was good news for shoppers as Ofgem reduced the energy price cap and inflation fell to 7.9%. In July's ShopperVista survey, these were the highlights about British food and grocery shoppers: 1. Confidence continues to rise as food price inflation falls Shopper...

Our new category benchmarks dashboard is now live along with the first of nine topic based reports. We launched our last category benchmarks in 2021, after a few delays thanks to Covid-19! Now, we have updated our research to help you understand what matters to shoppers when choosing which products to buy. What’s new? Since 2021, we have made a number of exciting changes to category b...

Following the Government decision to delay plans to ban multi-buy promotions in England for certain products classed as high in fat, salt, or sugar (HFSS), we look back at how the initial HFSS legislation impacted shoppers and what the delay could mean. The restrictions, originally scheduled for October 2022, are now set to take effect in October 2025, although both Tesco and Sainsbury’s have c...

Being a father of three young children Father’s Day is a relatively big deal for me. However, when it comes to associating the event with food and groceries it isn’t one of the events that instantly jumps into shoppers’ minds . In fact, shoppers also don’t commonly see it as an event where they consider out-of-home options such as pubs and restaurants . So, it leaves retailers and the out-of...

Shopper confidence rose another point this month taking the score to -15. This continues the steady rise seen so far this year after a year of record-breaking lows in 2022. However, as we look deeper into the data, is -15 an accurate reflection of the confidence out there? Our shopper confidence index uses a scale from -100 to +100 with positive and negative scores indicating the health of sho...

Last month, we published the first part in our trade up and down series, exploring the changes shoppers are making in and out-of-home. This week, our second instalment , focusing on the decisions at the category level has launched on ShopperVista . Here are three highlights from part one: Discounts are getting even more cut through With shoppers’ budgets under pressure for over a yea...