NIelsen survey: Consumers shopping less but spending more money
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 03/03/2011 11:09 AM
Consumers made fewer outings to stores in 2010 compared with 2007 but they spent more, a recent Nielsen survey found.
Nielsen’s director for consumer panel services, Soon Lee Lim, told reporters on Tuesday that household spending for fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) in urban areas grew by 33 percent to Rp 3.7 million (US$420,500) per household from 2007 and in rural Java by 36 percent to more than Rp 2 million.
Contrary to the increase in spending, the frequency of household shopping trips in urban areas decreased by 9 percent to 239 visits in 2010 from three years earlier and in rural Java by 5 percent to 255 visits, she said.
Soon said consumers in rural Java visited stores 7.5 percent more often than their urban counterparts because shopping was easier in rural areas as stores were getting closer to their homes.
Each urban household spent more than Rp 15,800 per visit, indicating a 46 percent increase from 2007, while spending in rural Java was below Rp 10,000, up by 41 percent from 2007.
Soon said 52 percent of households in urban areas shopped for FMCGs at general trade channels, such as traditional markets and small shops, and 48 percent at modern trade channels like minimarkets, hypermarkets and supermarkets.
Among households in rural Java, 81 percent shopped at general trade channels and 19 percent at modern trade channels.
Visits to minimarkets were getting more popular in rural Java, with their frequency increasing by 38 percent to 11 visits per month from 2007 to 2010. A household spent an average of Rp 40,000 in 2010, up by 36 percent from 2007.
In a survey conducted from 2007 to 2010, Nielsen picked 1,720 households in rural Java and 2,830 in five urban areas, 930 households in Greater Jakarta, 500 in Bandung, 450 in Semarang, 500 in Surabaya and 450 in Medan.
The survey recorded shopping dates, times, locations, shoppers, promotions, the amounts of goods bought as well as the variety, the prices and the quantities of goods. (msa)
