Australians have been getting out and about (but avoiding public transport), feathering their nests and boosting their skincare routines, if the latest data from ‘buy now, pay later’ company Zip is any insight into our lockdown habits.
Tracking anonymous data from 1.8 million users, Zip’s spending index found that unsurprisingly spending on road tolls, petrol and car insurance has fallen under restrictions to curb the spread of the virus.
But we’ve still been on the move, with demand for bike and scooters jumping 80% on the site in April, making them its most popular products.
Homewares were a close second – a sign that perhaps we’ve realised the place needs a spruce-up (or in my case, a bulldozer) – followed by computers as more of us than ever set up home offices.
We also ditched cosmetics, but bought up on skincare and home hair-dye products as we tried to stay away from the hairdresser and DIY ourselves (have to maintain some standards).
There was some good news too – Zip says the tracking shows people spent more locally, supporting their neighbourhood bakeries (singlehandedly keeping my local one in business), fruit and vegetables and specialty items.
Aussies also appeared to be doing the right thing by staying home and steering clear of cash (avoiding the germs) with ATM withdrawals more than halving in April, while online shopping almost doubled.
“There are extraordinary economic and social factors that are causing consumer behaviour to be incredibly dynamic. We haven’t seen these sorts of swings in spending before, ever,” Zip co-founder Peter Gray said.
“The big question is what does this mean for the medium and long-term? From what we are seeing we would predict this is a sign of things to come, people returning to shopping local and moving away from the cash society we have been so accustomed to.”
With restrictions now easing around the country as case numbers fall, we are about to find out.
One thing is clear though – my next big purchase will be a gym membership and more stretchy pants.
