Future Publishing has released findings on the way the current cost of living crisis is affecting consumers’ Christmas spirit and plans for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, alongside its retail product transaction data from the Amazon Prime Early Access Sale in October. Together, the data paints a detailed picture of how the economic climate is affecting consumer attitudes towards shopping ahead of the golden quarter of retail.
In June 2022, Future launched the first wave of its cost of living and Christmas survey in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It is now sharing its UK results from the second wave of research conducted in September 2022. Across both waves Future contacted a demographically representative sample of over 3,500 Christmas partakers from the UK all recruited independently via Future’s research platform, The Lens.
The analysis reveals UK consumers will still prioritise buying gifts this Christmas and Black Friday with average budgets set at £476 and £269 respectively. Purchase intent increases for Future’s audience specifically by 49 per cent at Christmas and 14 per cent for Black Friday. Premium publishers such as Future are continuously supplying consumers with the editorial content they need to access the best deals and make informed buying decisions ahead of these key retail events.
As Black Friday and Cyber Monday approach, engagement is stable from consumers. However, there is a noticeable increase in shopping intent from both Future audiences and the average UK consumer when it comes to ‘shopping for myself’. During wave one research, 30 per cent of UK consumers (vs 41 per cent for Future audiences) ‘bought for themselves’; this rose to 38 per cent (vs 47 per cent for Future audiences) during wave two. The biggest purchase consideration winners in terms of the percentage change between June and September were small to medium kitchen appliances (+22 per cent), large kitchen appliances (+9 per cent) and headphones (+7 per cent). Future’s latest insights on retail product transactions from Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale in October evidenced this behaviour with consumers opting to buy items such as personal audio accessories over larger luxury items like TVs. Eight in 10 of the top products bought were either headphones or earbuds.
While consumer spending cutbacks remain at a similar level between June (81 per cent) and September (85 per cent), when consumers are spending, they are doing so on items that help them manage the cost of living crisis. During the Prime Early Access event, among the top transacted items were digital Thermo-Hygrometers that enable consumers to precisely monitor the temperature and humidity of their homes remotely, as well as energy-saving air fryers that reduce reliance on ovens.
In October 2021 Future saw 101 transactions through its platform for air fryers. This jumped to 1,000 transactions in October 2022 – an increase of 890 per cent. During this time, Future’s Homes portfolio produced 279 articles on air fryers, 172 articles more than in October 2021.
“At Future, we are able to leverage two key competitive advantages to help consumers make smart purchasing decisions; best-in-class editorial and our dynamic price comparison technology, Hawk,” comments Simon Rawle, eCommerce Director, Retail at Future Publishing.
“During the Amazon Prime Early Access Sale, our editorial teams curated a broad range of deals and ‘smart shopping’ content which focussed as much on value as product performance. Our data shows that consumers are more willing than ever to consider lesser-known brands in order to save money. We add value in this scenario by testing products at a wide range of price points, helping shoppers to see beyond a discount and identify which deals offer true value. Additionally, where we see high demand – air fryers for example – Hawk allows us to scrape a database of over 2,500 retailers to find and surface stock dynamically.
“This combination of editorial and tech underpins the value that we add to both consumers and retailers during key shopping periods.”
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