Many people are curious about how the pandemic changed people’s shopping habits; a survey from Slickdeals lets them compare their own behavior with those of others.
Online sellers’ first question may be, which categories were impacted, beyond the obvious items like toilet paper and hand sanitizer? The winners: Home Improvement and Home Office.
OnePoll surveyed 2,000 people on behalf of deals site Slickdeals and revealed that the year 2020 forever affected how 60% of people budget and spend their money.
One eye-catching statistic: over half of respondents (54%) said they would be willing to spend more than their budget if the item they wanted was on sale. And 52% said they were willing to buy things in bulk if they were on sale. But it also found that 80% were more likely to buy essential items on sale than non-essential items and luxuries.
Ryan Tronier, senior personal finance editor for Slickdeals, said search volume on the Slickdeals website continued to remain high in the categories of home improvement and home office. He said that while there has been a decline since the height of pandemic for searches related to essential items, terms like toilet paper continue to be popular with its customers.
What Did Americans Spend Less On During 2020?
Movies 49%
Luxury goods 46%
Video games 42%
Clothes 42%
Entertainment 41%
What Did Americans Spend More On in 2020?
Groceries 41%
Self-care products 23%
Bills 22%
Takeout/Restaurant Dining 22%
Healthcare 20%
Sadly, Slickdeals said, “Americans also experienced increases in other unexpected expenses this past year, like funerals, medicine and health expenses.”
It also found that 67% of respondents said they received a stimulus check within the past year, which, for most of them, was spent on what it classified as necessities, such as bills, groceries and savings.
But some respondents experienced guilt about how they spent their stimulus money. Twenty-nine percent of respondents felt guilty for buying something “unnecessary” with their stimulus money, such as designer bags and shoes, new appliances, weekend getaways, skincare products and home decor.
You can find more of the survey results on the Slickdeals.net website.
