Portuguese families continue to cut back on supermarket shopping, especially food, both for themselves and their pets. Kantar survey data for Centromarca shows that the quantity purchased decreased by 4.4%, despite value growth of 8.1%. For food and fresh products, the decrease in quantity is 7.3% and 7.7% respectively, and for animal feed even 8.2%. This is despite the fact that three in four Portuguese admit to “compare more prices and choose the cheapest brands”.
The research, which results from the analysis of purchase data from four thousand households included in Kantar’s Home Panel, representative of mainland Portugal and spread over more than a thousand research points, covers purchases made between January 2 and October 8, 2023. a period where consumers used promotional products more than half (51.3% to be precise) of the times they went shopping. Of this universe, 77%, those 3 out of 4, indicate that they are still trying to choose the most economical brands. The average discount was approximately 30%.
It is therefore no surprise that distribution brands (MDD), commonly known as ‘white brands’, continue to ‘gain relevance’ in Portuguese homes, growing by seven percentage points in their value share between 2020 and 2023, rising from 38% to the current 45%. A period in which the purchase frequency of these types of products, cheaper than manufacturers’ brands, increased by 4.4% and in which the amount consumers spent on MDD increased by 19.4%.
The research also indicates that in 2023, Portuguese “continued to increase the frequency of shopping and decrease the volume purchased each time”, although it guarantees that both trends have slowed compared to last year. “Between July and September 2023, consumers actually reduced the number of times they went shopping, compared to 2022,” Centromarca said.
“We will see if these data become a trend before the end of the year and early 2024,” says Marta Santos, director of customers and data at Kantar Portugal, and for whom the rollback of zero VAT, from January 1, “can to counter the increase in the size of the basket of products outside the basket covered by the measure that has been observed in recent months’.
Pedro Pimentel, general manager of Centromarca, assumes “relative optimism” for 2024. “The gradual contraction of inflation and the expected salary adjustment could allow a slight recovery of the purchasing power of many families, which have been severely affected in the past two years slaughtered. However, it is necessary to take into account the adverse impact of the reversal of zero VAT at the beginning of January,” he says. Current data shows that four in ten items purchased are products to which VAT does not apply, with mainly older and lower and lower middle class families will be affected by the end of the measure.
Source: DN
