Buongiorno Team,

It’s been a minute between emails. It’s travel season over in Europe and I managed to get away to Italy recently 👌

In this week’s newsletter, I’ve summarised PWCs recent Global Consumer Pulse Survey 2023 so you don’t have to read the whole thing.

The best 6 findings are listed below. Enjoy 👇

6 Interesting Stats From PWC Global Consumer Pulse Survey 2023

Methodology: This survey was conducted in June 2023, surveying 8,975 consumers in 25 different countries.

Finding 1: What Recession?

Nearly half of respondents (46%) expect to increase spending on groceries, up from 42%, perhaps anticipating an enduring rise in food prices.

Asked about less essential purchases, the respondents predicted even more dramatic increases in spending, indicating a willingness to buy what they want but do not necessarily need. More than a third (36%) of respondents say they’ll spend more for clothing and health/beauty products, an increase from 28% and 27%, respectively, in the previous two surveys.

Additionally, travel, both domestic and international, will continue to generate consumer spending, up to 44% in this survey from 30% in the February survey. It seems obvious that “revenge travel,” noted in the last survey, is not slowing down!

Finding 2: Search Engines (e.g. Google) Are Still The Most Common Way For Customers To Research Products Pre-Purchase, But Social Media Is Becoming More Popular For Gen Z

More than half of consumers (55%) rank search as their top source for pre-purchase information.

As an organisation, you should be thinking about how to improve search engine optimisation (SEO) beyond a keywords strategy. Producing high-quality, relevant, and unique content helps you get noticed by search aggregators and can exponentially assist your exposure to consumers.

Finding 3: Traditional TV Ads Still Appear To Be Extremely Effective For Purchasing Decisions

The fact that traditional TV ads was the second most “influential” method of marketing for purchase decisions surprised me.

What was no surprise was the most influential type of advertisement - an ad that links directly to the personal preferences of the consumer. Interestingly, the preference level for this type of ad jumps to 43% among gen Z respondents, indicating how important personalisation is becoming to the younger population.

The problem? The demise of third party cookies in the next 1 year is going to make this personalisation so much harder. If you’re not thinking about innovative ways to personalise marketing once third-party cookies are banned, you’re falling behind!

Finding 4: Consumers appear to enjoy the concept of a “Chatbot Pre-Purchase Concierge”

44% of all respondents said they would be interested in leveraging a chatbot as something that can help them before a purchase.

We often see chatbots used as a post-purchase tool to try & deflect contacts away from customer support. With the recent increased capabilities of chatbots, it’s evident that marketing teams should be thinking about how chatbots can aid further in the purchase / conversion process.

Finding 5: Direct to Consumer (D2C) Websites Are Beginning To Dominate VS E-Com Giants

To date, aggregators and e-commerce giants (e.g. Amazon) have had the advantages of scale, price and often ease of use.

But it is clear that D2C brands and companies have their own advantages.

The key reasons that consumers are becoming more drawn to D2C websites include authenticity of products (50%), greater choice of products (47%), competitive pricing (43%) and availability of stock (43%).

Finding 6: Consumers Are Willing To Pay More For “Sustainable” Products, Especially “Locally Sourced” Products

Social consciousness is taking over, particularly across Milennials and Gen Z population.

Overall, eight out of ten consumers say that they would pay more: more than four in ten say they’d pay up to 10% above average, one in ten say they would go up to 30%, and nearly 7% say they would pay even higher prices.

Ciao,

Ben

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