One in four Italian consumers is willing to sacrifice quality in favor of lower prices and only three out of ten Italians are ready to pay for more sustainable products, in Switzerland they are double. And again: Covid has profoundly changed consumer habits, so much so that across Europe 40 per cent of them have begun to buy online products that they had previously only bought in physical stores. Furthermore, the pandemic has led to a change in values for almost seven out of ten consumers, a percentage that in Italy rises to 80 percent: more than three out of ten today consider the low price as a decisive criterion for the purchase choice. These are the data that emerge from the nuovo report “The shape of retail”created by the international consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal and dedicated to changing the values in consumer purchases. The study, conducted in collaboration with Retail Economicsexamines a sample of 5,250 families in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. “Never as today – comments Alessandro Ranzoli, Managing Director Consumer Retail Practice of A&M – it is important for the brands of consumer goods to understand the changes in the values that guide consumers’ purchases, their very survival on the market is at stake”.
The cause
Covid first and the current economic uncertaintycharacterized by inflation that has reached its maximum value in the last 50 years, represent an accelerator that promises to completely redesign the shopping habits of European citizens, but not only.
The types of consumers: quality, cost, convenience, experience and sustainability
There are five types of consumers. The admirers of quality, which represent over 37 per cent of respondents: those looking for quality are generally aged 55 and over, from the point of view of geographical distribution they are much more likely to come from higher middle income countries, such as Switzerland (40, 6) and the United Arab Emirates (42). Italy ranks at 32.4. Then there are the consumers cost conscious which cover 30% of the total and which are generally younger and come mainly from Spain (39.9 per cent), UK (36.7) and Germany (32.8), countries that have seen inflation increase the most respect to others. Italy follows with 31.2 percent; in Switzerland just 14% of respondents say they are influenced by price. The third category are those who seek comfort first and that are 11 per cent: this is a class of heterogeneous buyers by age who want fluid shopping experiences, with accessible products, easy to buy and make, and here too the Swiss are the best with 15.6 per hundred. 8 percent i experienced researchers“, A category that is worth 8 percent: they are young consumers, under 25, who consider the store environment and the entertainment component to be a fundamental part of the transaction, a type of consumer that sees Italy settling above the average (11.9 percent). Finally, there are the buyers oriented towards sustainabilitya category that is worth 14 percent and involves Millennials and Generation Z, willing to abandon brands that do not meet ethical conditions in the production and sale of their products. «It is interesting to note a certain optimism of the Italian consumer: Italy, despite having greater economic difficulties, has a mass of price-conscious consumers in line with France and Germany, countries with a lower difficulty index. But that’s not all: the most attentive consumers are those who read today’s inflation as an alarm bell on the quality of life in the next 12 months. This is the case of Spain and the United Kingdom: respectively 57 per cent and 42 per cent of the population of the two countries – against an average of 40 per cent – believe that next year the current situation will have a severe impact on the cost of living; Italy is once again optimistic with 33 per cent. The centrality of price in determining the value of a purchase brings with it a series of interesting behaviors to observe ».
Value in the purchasing process and product categories
The determining factor in purchasing choice changes as the product category changes: for example, consumers seek higher quality in electronics purchases than in clothing purchases. Similarly, it is possible to identify trends within individual countries depending on the goods that one decides to purchase: the United Kingdom, for example, tends to favor attributes linked to the functionality of the product; in Italy, on the other hand, the consumer is much more emotional in the purchase of clothing, for which the sensory experience of seeing and touching the fabrics is still important, while being guided by functional values (quality, price and comfort) when we speak of food, health and beauty products. The generational aspect also counts: in fact, if elderly consumers are more attracted to the quality of a commodity, the younger ones pay more attention to the environment of the physical store, and to the presence of technological tools to complete purchases.
Sustainability
The third and final trend is that relating to sustainability. Italian consumers are black shirt in this category, compared to the rest of Europe: only one in three countrymen is willing to pay more for a more sustainable product; 63 per cent of the Swiss, 55 per cent of the Germans and half of the British would do so. If we have already seen that, with the exception of Italians, who are less sensitive to it, on average almost 50% of consumers are ready to pay more for more sustainable products, among all the issues related to sustainability the most deeply felt, agrees. 31 per cent of consumers, is the fair compensation for workers, following the sustainability of the materials used (21) and work policies (13). From a generational point of view, we can see that the youngest, Generation X in the lead, are certainly the most attentive consumers to carbon footprint and therefore the environmental impact of a purchase.