CHICAGO — IRI is continuing to collaborate with its partners at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to analyze the latest consumer purchase trends in Italy, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, U.K. and U.S. The company just updated the report, “Consumer Spending Tracker: COVID-19 Impact,” to capture the most recent insights.

Key highlights from the research include:

• As the COVID-19 outbreak accelerates in Europe and the U.S., governments, businesses and consumers are changing behaviors rapidly – this is reflected in consumer purchases in Italy, France, U.S., Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, U.K. and Spain.

• In most geographies, sales remain elevated for home care and frozen food segments. Other areas appear to show less year-over-year growth in the past week, but this is due to Easter week, which is traditionally a time of elevated food purchases.

• As stay-at-home orders persist, U.S. shoppers are shopping less frequently but making larger purchases of pantry-stocking essentials and fresh basket items as the pandemic continues.

• In the U.S., over-the-counter health care, baby care and water saw the largest stock-ups without consistent replenishment. Frozen and shelf-stable items were stocked and are being replenished. The demand for quarantine needs such as grooming supplies emerged in later weeks. Italy and UK did not see as much stock up without replenishment behavior which could be driven by the speed at which the virus hit the areas or less storage space to hold non-urgent supplies.

• E-commerce continues to show strong growth over last year in Italy, France and Spain, indicating consumers are shifting their purchasing patterns from in-store to online. In all three countries, there is a consistent, increasing shift to e-commerce since the beginning of the crisis with a focus on click and collect.