Consumers are shifting online during pandemic, poll finds
Canadian consumer habits are rapidly changing in the face of the social distancing measures brought on by COVID -19, according to a new Forum Research poll.
Commissioned by Postmedia, the poll showed how Canadians are transitioning to become stay-at-home consumers. They’re shopping online more, including for groceries, and they’re signing up for more streaming services. Ride-sharing services, meanwhile, are being used less while travel has mostly become an afterthought.
“They really are a more digital consumer — they’ve tried way more things than they’ve tried before digitally,” said Lorne Bozinoff, the president of Forum Research. “The difference of online expenditures before and after COVID -19 is pretty startling.”
Before the pandemic, 21 per cent of Canadians polled were doing more than 20 per cent of their shopping of their shopping online. That number now stands at 38 per cent, the poll found.
The number of Canadians doing more than 40 per cent of their shopping online more than doubled to 19 per cent. Prior to the pandemic, only eight per cent of those polled did so.
Some of that additional activity can be seen in the number of Canadians ordering their groceries online. Over the past month, 19 per cent of those polled ordered groceries online at least once, which represents a more than 100 per cent increase from the pre-pandemic level.
What Bozinoff is most interested in seeing whether these new behavioural patterns will become permanent. He likens the current environment to a free trial. Canadians are signing up to test it out, but there’s no telling if they’ll continue to do so when social distancing measures are dropped.
“If they find buying clothes online is a hassle because you can’t see it, feel it or try it on, that won’t stick,” Bozinoff said. “It’s going to vary by the experience and the product category.”
The only consumer habit that did not see an expected increase was the number of Canadians ordering takeout or delivery. More of them, 71 per cent, actually did so before social distancing measures were put in place in comparison to the 61 per cent who reported doing so now.
“You would think takeout and delivery would be the saviour of the food service industry and this says no, that hasn’t happened,” Bozinoff said.
Financial Post