According to antuit.ai, only a third of UK consumers stayed loyal to brands during the pandemic, with consumers looking to save money being a key reason for the change in buying habits.

Original research of over 2,000 UK shoppers showed that consumers who switched were more likely to have traded down on grocery brands during the pandemic than those who traded up from own brand to brands. 20% said they traded down from brands to own brands during the pandemic, compared to just 14% who traded up.

Saving money was the main motivation for those switching to owned brands (55%), followed by 30% who wanted to try new products and 29% who were concerned about financial uncertainty.

Lack of product availability – from the panic buying that left shelves bare at the start of the pandemic to the shelf gaps prompted by Brexit and the more recent ‘pingdemic’ – also impacted customers’ choices when it came to brands. A quarter (25%) of those trading down did so because their normal brand wasn’t available, with a further 23% saying lack of choice on the shelf had prompted them to switch.

According to the research, those who opted to trade up said they had opted to spend more on ‘finer’ foods and allocate more discretional spend to groceries because they weren’t socialising (38%), while a third (33%) said they were happy to trade up to support local brands and businesses at a difficult time. However, as the pandemic eases, just 38% who traded down said they would make the switch from brands to own brand permanently.