How COVID-19 is changing consumer behaviors

Daily life for people around the world has changed in ways that would have been unthinkable a few weeks ago. But as consumer-facing organizations try to find their way through the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s important to keep in mind that the global consumer was already evolving at great speed. That process is now playing out faster than anyone imagined.

Consumer-facing companies urgently need to anticipate what kind of consumer is emerging, so they can make it through the current crisis and build the capabilities that future relevance will require. We created our FutureConsumer.Now program two years ago to guide those efforts.

Now we’ve created the EY Future Consumer Index to help leaders understand and track emerging consumer behaviors and sentiment around the world. Over the coming months, we’ll identify the new segments we see emerging – asking which are temporary reactions to changing circumstances, and which point to more fundamental shifts.