Consumers are preparing to renew their commitment to a “shut-in” lifestyle this winter with significant implications for brands and retailers, suggests a new survey by US-based Nutrition Business Journal.
This is one of the main findings in NBJ’s just released Immune Health Special Report.
With indications that 2020 is already set to become a record year for immunity supplements, the new new 73-page report takes a detailed – and very timely – look at what the future hold for the immunity category in the health and nutrition industry. It projects growth for immunity supplements at better than 50% in 2020, with certain standout ingredients “rocketing into the hundreds of percent”.
Specifically, the report asked consumers compare their choices and behaviour early in the pandemic, to what they expect they will be doing thus autumn and winter. The results, ranged on a 5-point scale from ‘do less’ to ‘do more’ suggest, as NBJ’s Rock Polito puts it, that “consumers might be planning for some self-imposed lockdown”, whatever the government might degree.
For example, nervousness about shopping in ‘physical stores’ (a term itself that was barely heard outside of retailing conferences until very recently) clearly remains, with 50% of consumers in the ‘do less’ part of the spectrum. A correspondingly high 59% (by US standards) look likely to be doing more online shopping this autumn and winter. Meanwhile 59% of consumers polled are in the ‘do less’ end of things when it comes to eating out at a cafe or restaurant. The cooking at home habits seems to be sticking around for now too, with 54% saying they expect to be doing more of it.
