The value of Romania’s average FMCG shopping basket was about 9% higher last year compared to 2023, with the advance rate similar to the period when inflation was more than twice as high, shows a report by market research and analytics technology company YouGov Shopper Intelligence.
According to the report released on Monday, amid the continuation of inflationary pressure and the deepening uncertainty caused by the political and economic context, Romanian households have taken measures to streamline their spending on fast-moving consumer goods.
YouGov Shopper Intelligence data shows an increasing appetite for promotions and a decrease in the frequency of shopping trips, correlated with the growth of the shopping basket.
„Whereas in the post-pandemic years the trend was towards an increase in the number of purchases per household, 2024 brought a trend change that comes mainly from families with children and young shoppers (aged 18 to 34) without children. And this change was felt in many FMCG segments: in over half of the categories with volume decreases, the negative dynamics was mainly caused by the decrease in purchase frequency. The average value of the FMCG shopping basket increased by about 9% last year compared to 2023, a rate similar to the previous period when inflation was more than twice as high. But this advance does not come only from inflation. An important factor is the tendency to buy larger amounts of products/several categories during a trip to the store: stock-up buying missions (for in-home consumption) have become more important for shoppers and, implicitly, across the entire retail market, because they translate into larger baskets,” the experts explain.
The inflationary wave generated by the Covid pandemic and amplified by the war in Ukraine has subsided, notes the syndicated survey YouGov Inflation Tracker, which is based on the analysis of over one million household purchases over the course of a year. Thus, an inflation rate of 3.6% is estimated in Romania’s FMCG sector for 2024, compared to 10% in 2023.
The YouGov Behavior Change Survey also points out that last fall, four in ten local shoppers were concerned that prices would continue to rise and thought that this would affect their buying behavior for daily necessities. In this context, producer brands have invested heavily in promotions and fueled the buyers’ appetite for „good deals” in retail, and promotions have come to represent 23.5% of total FMCG purchases for household consumption, up by almost three percentage points compared to 2023.
„The share of promotions has increased particularly in hypermarkets, discounters, online stores and in traditional commerce. For the first time in recent history, in 2024 we witnessed the decline in the market share of the Private Labels segment in Romanian retail. It currently covers 24.3% of total household FMCG purchases (excluding fresh products), while in 2023 the share was 25%. This dynamic comes against the backdrop of the intensification of promotions carried out by producer brands. In general, producer brands can gain a competitive edge over the retailers’ own brands through strategic promotional investments. In addition, many brands last year managed to improve their presence in discounters, which are the No. 1 retail channel in Romania. This trend also reveals an increase in consumer preference for products with slightly higher prices (up-trading). There was a net positive effect of up-trading on the growth rate of the sector’s value in 2024 compared to the previous year,” the report states.
YouGov Shopper Intelligence, Consumer Panel Services (part of the GfK group, until 2023) offers access to rich expertise and quality data from consumer panels.
AGERPRES
