“The IRI COVID-19 Dashboard has become a trusted, standard resource for understanding the CPG landscape in real time, including the behavioral shifts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dr. Krishnakumar (KK) S. Davey, president of IRI Strategic Analytics, in the press release. “These two new indices significantly increase our offerings by providing additional shopper views to help CPG manufacturers and retailers stay connected to their customers during a time that has rendered traditional measurement models as poor predictors of the future. Powered by IRI’s nationally representative consumer panel and market-leading E-Market Insights, these new indices work in tandem with the extensive IRI Shopper Loyalty database of over 500 million frequent-shopper loyalty cards to provide unmatched insights into rapidly evolving consumer behavior.”
The Channel Shift index provides a standard metric for tracking accelerating and decelerating CPG channel shifts for all outlets, grocery, club, dollar, drug, mass, and total e-commerce, the press release says. It offers two views: Channel Demand, which examines the level of dollar sales transactions within each channel compared to the year-ago period, and Product Trip view, which details the level of trips consumers take to each channel compared to the year-ago period. Both views are updated weekly.
The press release points out some insights revealed by this index:
- Total e-commerce demand has significantly outpaced all other channels since at least mid-June and is up 86% compared to the year-ago period.
- Spending in the drug store channel was down 5%, a significant drop during the week ending Aug. 30 compared to previous year, reversing a 10-week trend of being in-line and above last year’s spending.
- Total trips across CPG outlets were down 3% compared to the year-ago period during the week ending Aug. 30, despite trips in the e-commerce channel being up 91%.
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The E-Commerce Demand Index provides a standard metric for tracking changes in online spending on CPG, the press release explains. It analyzes dollar sales vs. the year-ago period across releasable edible and non-edible departments. It is available for total e-commerce, brick & mortar e-commerce, and online e-commerce. Both views are updated every four weeks.The press release says that this index has revealed the following insights:
- Demand for brick & mortar e-commerce at the total CPG level is up 125% against the year-ago period, significantly outpacing demand for online e-commerce, which is only up 36%.
- Within the online e-commerce channel, demand across categories is up compared to the year-ago period, except for refrigerated foods, which dropped 1,500 basis points during the period ending 8/9 to 7% below year-ago levels.
- Demand for click-&-collect fulfillment at the total CPG level (up 120% vs. the year-ago period) is significantly outpacing demand for deliveries (up 78%).
