Numerator tracks omnichannel purchase data and surveys verified buyers on a monthly basis to understand how people shop and consume. The data is interesting to sellers since people’s comfort level with shopping in stores could impact online shopping behavior.
In its September consumer sentiment survey, it found consumer concern about COVID is the highest it’s been since March of 2020, with 52% of consumers preferring to shop at retailers that require masks (63% of vaccinated consumers, up from 46% of consumers who made the same claim in August).
Inflation is also top of mind for consumers. Nearly 4 in 5 (79%) are worried about rising prices on essential goods & services, 61% about rising prices on things like restaurants and travel, 61% about product & supply shortages, 52% about labor shortages, 51% about economic recession, 37% about job security or unemployment, and 32% about stock market stability.
Other interesting data points:
- More than half of consumers (55%) think the covid Delta variant will cause a return to lockdowns in their area.
- Over half of consumers (57%) are now expecting a “return to normal” to be delayed until 2022 or later, up from 48% of consumers in August and 18% in July.
- Timing expectations for a return to normal continued to shift back this month, with over half (57%) of consumers expecting “normal” to be delayed until 2022 or later, up from 48% last month and 18% in July. The number of consumers who said they were already living “normally” also decreased again this month, dropping from 27% to 24%.
You can dig into the data on Numerator.com. For example, it includes a chart showing results of panelists’ responses when asked what their current comfort level is with certain behaviors. The chart shows the results of all respondents by default, but you can click on the tabs in the chart to isolate results to those who report they are vaccinated or those who report they won’t get the vaccine.
