Italy Provides Insights into New Normal

As part of IRI’s continuous efforts to provide clients with actionable insights to help navigate the unpredictable retail landscape, IRI today hosted a webinar, “Italy Provides Insights into New Normal,” which analyzes the impacts of COVID-19 on consumer spending in Italy. As one of the first and most heavily-impacted countries, consumer behavior in Italy provides important lessons about what retailers and manufacturers can expect to see in the U.S. and other areas of the world in the coming weeks.

Select insights from this research include:

• Consumers’ response to COVID-19 can be categorized in three phases, each with distinct shopping habits: panic, divergence and the new normal.
• Stockpiling behavior lasted for four weeks, with a significant slowdown in sales growth once the national lock down and other restrictions were fully in place.
• Smaller stores saw sales growth spike at the time of the national lock down, givien their proximity and less queuing.
• Restrictions have resulted in channel switching with growth in click and collect behavior outpacing home delivery.
• Consumers are reducing shopping trips, but increasing basket size and focusing on essential and non-perishable categories.
• Private label is increasing share at higher rates over time.