CStore Decisions March 2023 Digital Edition is sponsored by Transact.
CStore Decisions highlights the data and key trends shaping 38 core c-storecategories as inflation surges, prices rise and innovation accelerates.
Some are coining 2023 a year of revival and reset. Customer routines and habits are still altered after three years of the lingering COVID-19 pandemic, but experts agree that customers are ready — for real this time — to get back to life as usual.
Euromonitor International pointed out that “Revived Routines” is a major consumer trend for 2023 that will see customers “out and about” regardless of lingering pandemic uncertainties as they continue to make up for time lost during the early days of the pandemic.
But just as customers are gearing up to reclaim routines, inflation is surging, prices are skyrocketing and fears of a recession are mounting, all of which are already impacting
shopper behavior.
This year’s Category Management Handbook reveals prices are rising across categories, with some items hit by increases of 10% or more vs. last year. While dollar sales have held steady or grown for many categories, unit sales are slipping across the board, likely because elevated pricing is causing customers to pull back on purchases.
Retailers are still grappling with ongoing labor shortages and out-of-stocks, which many have pointed out are more sporadic than they were during 2021 but continue none-the-less. More operators are expanding their own private-label brands and relying on them to fill holes caused by out-of-stocks in merchandising sets.