Introduction

Inflation 2023: Of coping and cutting

As of March 2022, the past year saw soaring prices and an inflation rate reaching more than 10% on average across Europe. In December 2022, the European Central Bank (ECB) raised its inflation projections for the euro zone to 6.3% in 2023. Prices – from energy to FMCG – will continue to increase for at least another two years, though the rate is expected to slow down in 2024.

As a result, shoppers will continue to be confronted with higher prices and budget squeezes in 2023 and will be forced to constantly adjust their household spend. This whitepaper takes a closer look at latest consumer sentiments, and resulting intentions and motivations for the near future: How will shoppers cope? If they need to cut their FMCG expenditures, which categories, brands and products will be losing out – and what are the implications for manufacturers and retail?

The findings shared in this whitepaper originate from CPS GfK’s Consumer Panel, enhanced by individual market research of CPS GfK Why2Buy surveys, analyzing the shoppers’ perspective, motivations and lifestyle needs through registered purchases representing a market of 174 million households in 14 countries.

Consumer Panel Services GfK (CPS GfK) conducted two surveys on Behavior Change in April and most recently in November 2022, which included 15 countries – seven in Western Europe, eight in Central and Eastern Europe – and 7,855 respectively 9,634 shoppers.

Insights into country differences and similarities in Europe are shared by CPS GfK experts from Denmark and Sweden, Germany, Romania and Ukraine.

Consumer Panel Services GfK

We pride ourselves in being a trusted partner for the FMCG industry when it comes to critical shopper insights. Providing key information on who buys what, where, how much, how often and why (not). With our high-quality, uninterrupted data, consultancy and expertise, we help our clients deliver superior customer experiences at every stage of the shopper journey.

We observe shopper behavior overtime, across all different shopping locations, allowing us to measure their footprint and provide our clients with a broad and in-depth view of their customers’ motivations, behaviors and patterns, past present and future

In addition to this whitepaper, click the button below for the on demand GfK webinar “Coping and cutting: Behavior change in times of instability”.

Click here

Lenneke Schils, Global Insights Director FMCG, CPS GfK, Lenneke.Schils@gfk.com

Marina Zabarilo, Director, Consumer Panel, FMCG & Retail Ukraine CPS GfK Ukraine, Marina.Zabarilo@gfk.com

Diana Scaunasu, Consumer
Panel Lead, CPS GfK Romania,
Diana.Scaunasu@gfk.com

Anna-Katherina Kraus, Commercial Director, Advanced Solutions, CPS GfK Germany, Anna-Katharina.Kraus@gfk.com

Myriam Martensen, Commercial Director Nordics, CPS GfK,
Myriam.Martensen@gfk.com