During the past year and a half, we did everything in our homes. Worked from home. Learned from home. Ate all of our meals at home. And, increasingly, we shopped from home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not surprisingly, this resulted in the need for more household care products than ever before. Hoarders notwithstanding, we needed cleaning and paper products for the messes we created while cooking at home. Food storage containers for leftovers. And switching from office outfits to virtual meeting clothes meant less dry cleaning and more laundry detergent (for those who actually changed outfits, that is). And we sanitized EVERYTHING, so we stocked up on wipes and bleach and anything we thought would kill viruses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As COVID subsides and we go back to our pre-pandemic lifestyles (sort of), some of these new habits will remain. But which ones? During ECRM\u2019s Household Cleaning, Food Storage & Paper Products Program<\/a>, I spoke with a dozen buyers from a variety of retail chains to get their insights on how today\u2019s consumer is shopping in these categories as we start to emerge from the pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One thing\u2019s for sure, though. The customer journey has been permanently altered. \u201cTwo-thirds of consumers we surveyed said that they have changed the way they shopped,\u201d says Carman Allison, VP of Consumer Insights for NielsenIQ<\/a>, who I interviewed in an on-demand fireside chat-style presentation for the program (see video below). \u201cThis is probably the first time in the history of our research where we had a consumer trend such as COVID impact every single consumer in some way or another.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n