Are you Uber Eating more or Just Eating the same?

Our Out of Home market expert, Lucy Chapman sets out what we can learn from consumer behaviour in the weeks leading up to lockdown.

"There’s no doubt about it, consumer and shopper behaviour has changed in significant ways over a very short time period, and everyone has an opinion about how and why. Of course it’s worth looking at what the actual data is telling us before jumping to conclusions. 

We’ve seen the headlines about bumper sales of groceries during March, with many Out of Home outlets facing enforced closures and shoppers looking to cater for an additional 500 million meals at home.  However, it’s worth taking a step back to look at what happened just before lockdown to help us better plan for what might happen next.

Looking at our read of the Out of Home market during March, we saw a surge in occasions which peaked in the week immediately prior to lockdown - up by 57% year on year. This surge was driven mainly by an increase in shoppers choosing delivery options.

What’s perhaps most interesting is that in the week prior to lockdown, 440,000 of the shoppers who purchased food for delivery had not done so in the six months prior.

Out of Home shoppers have been quick to adopt delivery in the build up to lockdown.  The big question is whether this habit will stick or if over time tighter belts will force more in home purchasing. And as some cafes and quick service restaurants tentatively start to re-open, how will purchases at these outlets rebuild?"

Download our infographic from this page, or get in touch to find out more about our Out of Home service.