Convenience MustStocks 2021

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Welcome to the 2021 edition of Convenience MustStocks, which provides a statistical snapshot of what is happening in impulse outlets in terms of brand performance across all the major product categories.

Food sales

Clearly, this has been a turbulent and unprecedented year, with shopping patterns seesawing from week to week as habits were impacted by factors such as: fear of the virus, social distancing measures, panic-buying, lockdowns, supply and logistics issues, Brexit, the closure of pubs, bars and restaurants, working from home and the huge drop-off in commuter and city-centre footfall.

This last factor had a major impact on products that are heavily reliant on impulsive purchasing behaviour – such as soft drinks, crisps and chewing gum.

But the patterns are hard to generalise and sometimes counterintuitive (sales of toilet roll, for example, actually fell within the impulse sector over the course of the year) so it would be unwise just by location, but increasingly by the lifestyle of consumers.

Convenience MustStocks is produced by Independent Retail News in association with market analyst NielsenIQ, without whose help, expertise and market knowledge none this would be possible.

I would like to thank the company once again for its assistance. NielsenIQ provides impulse sales information for the most recent 12-month period, compiles the top 10 product tables and backs that up with valuable insight into the trends that are shaping business today.

I hope you find the contents of the supplement informative and helpful in terms of developing sales and navigating the choppy waters of these still highly extraordinary times.

By David Shrimpton, editor of Independent Retail News