Report: COVID-19 drives Hong Kong consumers online to buy necessities

Hongkongers are spending more time and money online to buy necessities as they don't think COVID-19's hold over the city will end soon, according to an Ipsos' research study.

Conducted from 16 to 20 March, the report has studied Hongkongers' spending habits and consumer confidence during the COVID-19 pandemic.

48% of respondents said they had spent more time browsing online platforms. But even more notable were the findings that 36% had purchased more groceries online, and 33% had used more mobile payments to avoid unnecessary contact with other people. Only 6% said they had not made any significant changes to their daily lives.

Recent growing demand for online shopping has benefited grocery platforms. More than two-thirds (71%) of respondents said they had used HKTVmall to buy groceries; 48% had bought from ParknShop; while 37% had gone to Wellcome's online platform. Other popular online grocery platforms included Aeon (18%) and Ztore (14%). 19% of respondents said they had spent more money on frozen food online, compared to 41% who had purchased through offline channels. Moreover, only 9% had gone to online platforms to buy fresh food, with 45% going to offline channels.

With hygiene being given paramount importance, household cleaning products are still in great demand. 27% of respondents said they had spent more money online on household cleaning products, while over half (51%) said they had spent more on their products offline. Demand was also high for health supplements with 17% spending more on these products online (8% offline), as well as hand cream and moisturiser, with 12% buying more online.

Despite consumer spending habits changing a lot, 41% of respondents said the current situation would not have a major impact on their income, while 29% said that while their income had not yet been affected, they expected it to be reduced at some point. The same number (29%) of respondents said they were earning less already.

Asked when the current epidemic would end, only 14% of Hongkongers believed it would end in Q2 2020. 30% believed it won’t be before Q3 2020 and 10% were of the opinion it will only end next year. Half of the respondents said Hong Kong's recovery would only arrive next year.

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