Aussie consumers open up about post-lockdown plans

Over half of Australians are excited to shop in bricks-and-mortar retail again (52 per cent), according to a new survey by digital agency Affinity, and 63 per cent plan to keep doing the same or more online shopping as they did during lockdown.

The survey looked at how customers changed their behaviour during lockdown, and how they plan to change beyond lockdown.

And, according to Affinity, there were a few brand names that came up as businesses that responded well to the trials of the pandemic: Harvey Norman, Google, Microsoft, Woolworths, Coles, Uber Eats, Myer and Amazon.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has been the largest disruption to social, political and economic systems in the past 50 years and we wanted to understand how behaviours had changed in response,” said Affinity senior strategist Casper Yuill.

“Australians are keen to get back to the outdoors, restaurants, cinemas, retail stores, pubs, and even nightclubs, and don’t see nay issue with travelling further afield to do things.”

Affinity plans on doing a second survey in December to see how customers stuck to these predictions, and then release a report soon after detailing any changes that took place.

The survey comes as the retail sector continues to see spending injections in the weeks following the easing of restrictions, with Commonwealth Bank noting spending rose 3 per cent last week – with a 7 per cent rise in NSW and a 2 per cent rise in Victoria.

“The post-lockdown recovery in spending has been impressive so far,” said CBA chief economist Stephen Halmarick.

“Victoria only includes one day of reopening spending, but spending in the state had already been on an upward trend prior to the lifting of lockdown restrictions [and] a strong pick up is expected in upcoming data.”

Retail in Victoria is set to reopen at 6pm this coming Friday, which should give retailers a greater chance to make up sale lost throughout the state’s recent lockdown.

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