Consumers attracted to hygiene products, online fitness as pandemic spreads

A consumer survey in Indonesia has shown that persons are buying more health insurance and hygiene products and trying online fitness classes as the coronavirus continues to spread.

In the survey, conducted recently by Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and SurveySensum, 85 percent of respondents reported doing more handwashing while 46 percent said they took nutritional vitamin supplements.

The survey is backed by data from Nielsen showing that the worthiness of liquid hand soap, for instance, saw a 285 percent increase in March compared to the first 8 weeks of 2020. Folks are also buying more hand sanitizer, liquid antiseptic and wet tissues.

“In the first week after COVID-19 spread to Indonesia, we saw persons stocking up. However now we are not seeing that as much,” said SurveySensum founder and CEO Rajiv Lamba at a webinar on Friday.

Folks are buying products from markets in bigger packages as they continue to stay in the home more, Lamba said, consistent with retailers’ report of a shift in consumer behavior to get in bulk.

The survey findings were also consistent with retailers’ report of an uptick popular for hygiene products as Indonesia declared a public health emergency over COVID-19 on March 31, imposing large-scale social restrictions. COVID-19 cases in Indonesia soared within per month from zero to 2,273 cases with 198 dead, among the highest death rates on the globe.

Twenty percent of the survey’s respondents also said that they had tried online grocery shopping for the first time in March.

“Online sales of fast-moving consumer goods are usually low, but more people tried it. I believe it can be the brand new normal to get groceries online,” Lamba added.

The survey also showed that 18 percent of respondents also reported doing sports or fitness activities more through the quarantine, while 13 percent of respondents said they tried an online fitness class for the first time during quarantine.

“This is an excellent opportunity for fitness companies to tap into classes on the web or even to further promote their online products,” Lamba said.

A consumer shift toward a far more hygienic and healthier lifestyle is concurrent with Google Trend’s data, which show an upward trend in looks for the “immunity” keyword since early March following the President announced the first two cases of COVID-19 in Indonesia.

As people make an effort to stay active and healthy to keep up good immunity, also, they are staying indoors to adhere to the government’s call for physical distancing. The survey also reported that weekend traveling had declined by 77 percent in March, while going to malls for leisure and watching movies in cinemas was down by 76 and 65 percent, respectively.

The MMA questioned 500 people in five major cities across Indonesia from March 20 to 21 for the consumer survey while it can be monitoring 80 business to business respondents for the business enterprise sentiment survey.