As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect shopping behavior nationwide, consumers still saw the beginning of the New Year as a chance to recommit to a new round of weight-loss and health-related resolutions, albeit without the same level of commitment demonstrated going into 2020, per buyer intelligence leader Catalina, which compared retail sales on a dollar basis for the first three weeks of 2021 to sales during the last half of December 2020, as well as to the same period a year ago.
During the first three weeks of Jan. 2021, sales of alcoholic beverages declined by 40% at grocery and drug stores across the U.S. compared to the last two weeks of Dec. 2020. While this likely underscores the continued popularity of “Dry January,” during which an estimated one third of American adults now pledge to give up drinking beer, wine and cocktails for the entire month, a year ago sales of alcoholic beverages had declined by 46% during the first three weeks of Jan. 2020 — showing how COVID-19 continues to impact shopper behaviors and purchase decisions.
Those categories with the largest sales increases likely due to New Year’s weight loss resolutions and/or a desire to stay healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic, included:
During the first three weeks of 2021, sales of oil & omega dietary supplements increased by 25% (compared to +26% in 2020), adult nutrition drinks increased by 26% (compared to +31% in 2020), and multivitamins grew by 20% (compared to +26% in 2020).
While Dry January has led to an overall 40% decline in total alcohol beverage sales through Jan. 23, 2021, some categories were impacted more than others. Notably, the decline in Jan. 2021 is not as sharp as Jan. 2020:
“The unprecedented repository of data in our Buyer Intelligence Database, which captures up to three years of purchase history and more than two billion Universal Product Codes that are scanned daily in the U.S., is like candy to our data scientists and advanced analytics teams. It allows them to segment appropriate shoppers and identify insights into their rapidly shifting behaviors so that our retail and brand customers can target and deliver the most relevant message to them when they’re looking for it – in real time,” said Catalina CMO Marta Cyhan.
Source: Catalina
