Discovery Bank and Visa have released their SpendTrends2023 report which reflects the changes in consumer behaviour and spending over the past four years.
The Money Show interviews Hylton Kallner, CEO of Discovery Bank.
Discovery Bank and Visa SA have released the findings of a four-year collaborative study which shows how the COVID pandemic changed consumers’ spending habits.
The SpendTrends2023 report covers the period from 2019 to 2022 and also reflects how inflation starting to rocket last year has affected the haves and have-nots.
Discovery Bank’s #SpendTrend23 report in collaboration with @Visa_SA shows that the COVID-19 pandemic changed how much people spend, what they spend on, and how they spend. Read all about it and download the report on our website: https://t.co/lisvNaXXvA #DiscoveryBestBank pic.twitter.com/rjymPJuBB5
‘ @Discovery_SA (@Discovery_SA) March 8, 2023
Discovery Bank CEO Hylton Kallner says the study analysed the spend of “literally millions of South Africans” from pre-COVID through to 2022.
He details the three key questions asked by the researchers.
How much are South Africans spending by demographic segment, what are they spending on and how are they spending, so the payment mechanisms… It provides real insights using probably one of the richest data sets that’s ever been undertaken in the space.
Hylton Kallner, CEO – Discovery Bank
Kallner confirms that digital banking surged during the COVID lockdowns and says the trend could well lead to a cashless society.
He also describes a “return to normal” for the categories people stopped spending on during lockdown.
That period included almost no travel spend, very little on eating out in restaurants… and then over the last year in 2022 we’ve seen pretty much a return to normal, where groceries are the number one spend item and you can see the inflationary effect coming through.
Hylton Kallner, CEO – Discovery Bank
Eating out at restaurants and takeout is probably the third biggest category. That’s also increased to levels significantly in excess of pre-COVID… and there’s an interesting story there around the loadshedding impact on restaurants and people’s lifestyles.
Hylton Kallner, CEO – Discovery Bank
The study segmented the population based on income, which showed the differences in how food inflation affected the different categories.
The high net worth [individuals] have experienced spend inflation, their total spend on groceries, of 4% over the period… whereas in the mass market where there’s much less flexibility and ability to substitute items because the basket size is much smaller, we’ve seen an increase of over 40%.
Hylton Kallner, CEO – Discovery Bank
That reflects the increases that we’ve seen in core items like brown bread which has increased 80% over the four-year period… so you can really see the pressures that consumers can find themselves under as a result of the dynamics of inflation and how it affects different parts of the population.
Hylton Kallner, CEO – Discovery Bank
For more detail, scroll up to listen to the conversation
This article first appeared on CapeTalk : 4-year study shows SAns’ changing spending habits during and post-COVID
