Our lives are changing
About two weeks ago, due to Covid-19, the UK was “lockdown”, just a week after France and a few weeks after Italy. I’m neither a doctor nor a scientist, hence it’s hard for me to comment on that unique situation from a health and safety perspective. However, I’ve been amazed by how fast people around me have adapted to this new situation, and actually fascinated by the rapid adoption of new consumer behaviour in such a peculiar period.
The first and most obvious consumer shift has been the rapid increase in telemedicine usage. It’s actually striking to see the NHS issuing a 48-hour tender for online primary care consultation. In a pre-Covid world, this would have taken at least several months. Doctors had to quickly adapt too, learning how to use these tools in a very short period of time. And patients are now getting used to receiving trustful medical advice via this method. Although we are still at the beginning of this new digital healthcare era, and a lot has still to be done in terms of data security (as demonstrated one week ago when Paris hospitals where targeted of failed cyber-attack, more info here), we could expect the telemedicine industry to rise over the previously projected $114b by 2025 (1).
Consumers’ mindset has also shifted, suddenly more aware of the necessity to take a proactive approach when it comes to our own health. We feel more in charge now than ever, looking for ways to boost our immune system via our food, a renewed interest in vitamin C and other supplements, etc. And this is reflected in the spike in google search for these terms!
Being forced to stay at home, consumers are (re)discovering the joy of cooking. It’s really impressive to see all these people all at once sharing their best recipes in their Instagram stories to inspire each other. Some celebrity chefs even offer quarantine-friendly cooking tips (my personal favourites are Helene Darroze and Taku Sekine). We could expect that as many of us realize our need to be equipped in the kitchen, a renewed interest in the cookware and tableware category. And consumers are increasingly getting used to shopping for their groceries online! Instacart, Walmart Grocery and Shipt have seen respectively 218%, 160%, and 124% increases in average daily downloads compared to the previous month (2). My personal guess is that grocery online penetration which was 5% to 10% pre Covid would drastically increase in the coming months. Not only do we spend more time eating in our homes, but we also feel the urge to move our body. As a result, doing our fitness at home is now becoming the new normal, some of us even making it a social event with online live classes on Peloton or Swedish Fit for instance. Overall, spending time locked in our home forces us to have a holistic approach to our own wellness by building new routines to stay healthy.
On the personal care / beauty front, one of my favourites topics, I’m curious to see how we’re going to handle what is usually done by professionals, and more especially haircare. Are people going to cut and dye their hair themselves? And if they develop such skills, will they go back to their usual salons post quarantine? Some at-home hair care brands are actually leveraging this unique opportunity to increase awareness while educating their target. Josh Wood Colour is offering online personal consultations on his website and a live chat service and Bleach London is launching a series of virtual, interactive at-home colour tutorials, etc. During these isolated times, the demand for human connection is making virtual one-on-one consultations even more relevant. We could also except livestream shopping and immersive product content to benefit positively from the current situation.
Our professional lives have also drastically changed in a few days! By switching from working in an office to working from home, we are forced to master remote communication tools such as Slack for instant messaging or Zoom for video call. By the end of February ’20, Zoom had 13m monthly active users. And between February 22 and March 22 ’20, the application downloads increased by 1,270%, i.e. over 13 times! Now that we have our set-up to work from home ready, and are currently proving our productivity while being remote, we could reasonably expect this practice to become mainstream post Covid, potentially resulting in less need for commute and office space.
The closure of schools during this pandemic period is boosting the emergence of online and virtual classes. As I was catching up with my niece, I discovered that she quickly adapted to the new situation, now using Blackboard Collaborate to participate in her class. I realised that the short term situation is putting a lot of kids at risk, especially in less favoured part of the world: more than 95% of children are out of school in Latam and the Caribbean, implying the interruption of access to other important basic services, such as school meals, recreational programs, extracurricular activities and pedagogical support (3). However, over the medium to long term, the shift toward online education could facilitate the access to knowledge, increasing the potential audience of such classes.
Last but not least, in these uncertain times, we all feel the necessity to stay socially connected, multiplying the number of calls, group messages, houseparty chats, etc. We regroup on Instagram and YouTube to listen to live concerts (see below), we’re having dinner with our friends on video calls, we get the latest Covid information on WhatsApp, etc. The Covid situation is actually fostering the rise of online micro-communities where a small group of users share the same values and interest and, as a result, are super engaged. I personally have the conviction that these tight relationships will last post Covid, as well as our willingness to help our communities.
These are just simple and non-exhaustive observations I’ve made over the past days. If you’ve observed other consumers’ behaviour shifts and/or are building new products or services to cater these needs, please feel free to reach out, I would love to chat with you!
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