Blis has today revealed its new Consumer Confidence Pulse — the most comprehensive tracker of its kind — this interactive dashboard builds on its existing trend data around consumer mood to analyse behaviour during the COVID pandemic.
The dashboard also now tracks consumer movement over a rolling 13-month period, across 18 retail and lifestyle sectors including shopping malls, gyms, restaurants and grocery stores.
The Pulse runs in the UK, USA, Netherlands, Italy, Singapore and Australia and will launch in India, New Zealand and the Philippines in the coming months. Each month, The Pulse tracks responses to four questions around the economy, household financials, spend intent and COVID-19 anxiety. Coupled with consumer movement analysis, the dashboard enables brands to better understand trendlines by industry sector.
Emma-Jayne Owens, Managing Director AU & NZ, Blis added: “Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve seen brands pivot their operations, strategy and messaging multiple times to meet their consumers’ concerns about safety. The new dashboard will be an invaluable tool for brands to get ahead of the curve by ensuring their campaigns and messaging are striking the right tone and audiences at the right time.”
Several key takeaways include:
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Before the latest lockdown in July, consumer concern around COVID-19 was receding, but the latest outbreaks have seen a recent increase in caution.
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As recent data shows, severe lockdowns can still inflict doubt in the short-term, however economic and household financial confidence has been generally travelling upwards since 2020, as consumers acclimatise to pandemic life.
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While it remains to be seen what happens after this latest set of lockdowns, recent history shows that this resilience does translate to behaviour. Initially, the post-lockdown resumption of previous activities was gradual, but with each subsequent lifting of restrictions, the speed of return increased.
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Fiscal responsibility is evident as people continue to weather the storm by saving more, and paying off debt as priorities.
Alex Wright, Blis Global Insights Director, commented: “Our data has shown that consumers around the world are capable of exercising their own caution in advance of government imposed restrictions. So while Australia struggles through its latest set of restrictions, recent history suggests the post-lockdown recovery this time around may not be as gradual as when the pandemic first started.”
In Australia, the cautious optimism witnessed at the start of the year shifted towards uncertainty in July as persistent community cases and lockdowns in major cities took a toll on sentiment.
Since lockdown was imposed, mobility has trended down across all sectors, as would be expected given the severity of restrictions. Meanwhile July sees debt repayment rise in prominence at the expense of saving.
