Double whammy of Covid19 pandemic and inflation impacting lives of Indian consumers most: Ipsos Essentials

The latest monthly report of Ipsos Essentials shows Indian consumers are struggling with the double whammy of the impact of covid19 pandemic and inflation the most, followed by climate change and it is impacting how they feel, shop and run their households. Global consumers were seen to be struggling with inflation, covid19, and conflict in Ukraine most.

The survey also revealed that consumers across the globe were concerned about two key aspects – one, they felt the prices of items were much higher than normal and two, they felt unsafe in stores due to the lack of social distancing.

These were the findings of Ipsos Essentials, monitoring the new rules of engagement of people across the globe and the resulting impact on state of mind, state of wallet and future intentions in the 16 countries of Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain, India, Japan, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, the UK and the US and a sample size of 16,000 respondents.

Consumer segments bracing inflationary conditions with lifestyle changes

Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X and Boomers claimed to be making lifestyle changes to manage the impact of inflation with tweaking their lifestyle the following way: creating a personal budget, limiting travel to save on transportation costs, limiting social/ entertainment activities, cancelling subscription services and meeting with a financial advisor etc.

Consumers scaling back on discretionary spends; lower income households downgrading on essentials

Consumers across low, medium and high income households spoke about downgrading spends across meals (ordering in or eating out, entertainment (outside the home) footwear, fashion or accessories and home electronics (TV, computer, stereo). Low and middle income households claimed to have curtailed spends even on essentials like food (groceries).

Archana Gupta, country service line leader, market strategy and understanding (MSU), Ipsos India said, “Most target groups have been impacted by the macro conditions leading to ramifications on their household expenditures, both discretionary and essentials. Marketers will need to reassess how they address consumers’ concerns and provide products with add-on value propositions at pocket friendly prices. After all, to offset the recessionary forces the economy needs to show consumer buoyancy.”

Beliefs about current state of environment

At least 4 in 10 Indian consumers polled (40%) felt the environment was at a critical stage and the world had to act now, 34% felt while the environment was at risk, there was still time to act, 13% felt that environment though was a concern but it was largely overblown, 8% felt it was too late to prevent environmental collapse and 6% felt the environment was not a concern.

Global trend was similar; the environment being at a critical state emerged the biggest concern (48%), while 3 in 10 (30%) believed the environment was at risk but there was still time to act.