Consumer Insight Asia - Q3 2020

The latest edition of Consumer Insights Asia is now available. This quarterly publication reviews the latest FMCG trends in key categories across mainland China, Indonesia, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, India and Saudi Arabia.

Key highlights in this issue:

• FMCG in Asia maintains positive growth of 3.1% in Q3 2020. This is a slight slowdown from the same period in 2019 (4.8%). The slowdown is more apparent in North and Southeast Asia.
• The food sector is leading the FMCG market, achieving an appetising growth of 5.2%, compared to 3.4% in the same period last year. This is attributed to more cooking and eating occasions at home across almost all markets during COVID-19.
• Home care maintains its momentum with a growth of 7.6% for this quarter, which could be explained by consumer preferences for hygiene and cleaning products to defend themselves from COVID-19.
• The beverage and personal care sectors were also impacted by the pandemic. Beverages suffered a decline of 3%, mainly driven by mainland China. Meanwhile, personal care grew but at slower pace: 2.6% compared to 8.4% in Q3 2019. This was due to the negative performance in the top beauty markets of North Asia including Korea, Taiwan, and mainland China.
• Online shopping for FMCG products is thriving everywhere. Ecommerce is the fastest growing channel and gaining more of the total retail landscape across markets from North to Southeast Asia.
• Across the region, each market displays a different growth rate both for FMCG as a whole and across sectors. This is in line with the impact COVID-19 has had on movement, market trade structures (for example ecommerce) and the purchasing power of consumers in respective markets (read more about this in What Now, What Next).