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New consumer habits and behaviors revealed among multicultural consumers in U.S. in 2022 study by Sparkle Insights and TFC

April 26, 2022 AT 12 : 01 PM

LOS ANGELES, April 25, 2022 - A recent study by Sparkle Insights and TFC that conducted 1,519 interviews among Caucasian, Hispanic, African American, and Asian consumers in January this year revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic created an inflection point that have led to permanent changes in consumer behaviors in the U.S.
 
The notable impact on multicultural consumer behaviors includes the following:
 
CONSUMER PREFERENCE
  • More than 80% of consumers reported shopping for groceries at mass merchant stores. African Americans and Hispanics over index on dollar stores and convenience stores.  Asians over index on ethnic grocery stores and pharmacy stores. 
  • The pandemic has shifted a lot of the shopping online. More than half of the consumers shop for clothes, shoes, and personal care items online. Close to half of the consumers also shop groceries online.
  • Hispanic and Africans are most likely to shop groceries online. Asians are most likely to shop personal care items online. 
  • Consumers reported shopping for a wide range of products online, from electronics, daily life items such as cooking supplies, to large items such as furniture and TV, and even automobiles.
  • A noteworthy trend is that 20% of Hispanics, African Americans, and Asians display stronger interest in the online purchase of consoles and games than pre-pandemic.
  • All product categories witnessed significant growth in online shopping volume during the pandemic.
CONSUMER OUTLOOK
  • The pandemic prompted significant increase in at-home activities including cooking, ordering take-out delivery, renovation, exercising and personal development. Consumers across the board expect continuation of at-home activities till end of the year including cooking, decluttering, spending time with family, and working from home.
  • The pandemic has promoted consumers to take a more careful look at how they spend their money.
  • In addition to saving money and watching their spending, multicultural consumers in general demonstrated stronger appetite for buying and selling investment products and property than the general population and Caucasians.
  • Approximately 50% of Hispanics, African Americans, and Asians plan to buy and sell investments in the next 12 months. More than one-third plan to buy or sell crypto.
  • Multicultural consumers across the board are significantly more likely than the general population to send money domestically and internationally to help family.
  • During a time of labor shortage and the great resignation, more than 40% of consumers are planning to start a new job or career. A quarter plan to start their own business. Significantly, more Hispanics, African Americans, and Asians plan to start a new business.
  • Majority of Hispanics, African Americans, and Asians support brands that advocate diversity and inclusion compared to 44% for the general population.
  • Approximately half or more of multicultural consumers will support companies that are more socially responsible and pay more for healthier, organic, or green products.
NEW NORMAL AND MEDIA CONSUMPTION
  • The pandemic increased demand for at-home entertainment and the infrastructure that supports it. Demand and new subscription increases are particularly high among multicultural consumers, especially in the categories of home internet and music streaming where Hispanic, African American, and Asian consumers over index.
  • Consumers spend more than 12 hours on online TV on a weekly basis.
  • While social media is still an integral part of consumers' daily life, time spent on social media is far lower than online TV (7.77 hours a week).
  • Traditional TV remains a popular medium and ranks third in terms of overall usage after social media (7.54 hours/week).
  • Emerging medium online is music streaming which is the 4th most popular medium in terms of time spent. Consumers spend close to 5 hours streaming music online on a weekly basis.
  •  The top 3 video streaming platforms are Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu. With its ever-expanding library of diverse content and international programming, Netflix is the most popular video streaming platform.
  • The top show categories watched by more than 50% of consumers are comedy, dramas, and suspense/crime. Hispanics, African Americans, and Asians have significantly higher viewership of fashion/beauty shows than the general population.
  • About 4 out of 10 Filipinos enjoy watching home improvement shows, significantly higher than the general population.
  • Filipinos are the most avid social media users. Significantly more Filipinos use YouTube and Facebook on a daily basis than the general population and other segments.
  • Hispanics appear to use more Asian social media than the general population, probably due to their exposure to and interest in various Asian cultural influences such as Chinese drama, K-pop, Japanese anime, etc.
  • Despite being mostly English proficient, Indians' and Filipinos' use of in-language media is 40%-60% across media forms. In-language use is highest for online radio, traditional print press and social media.
 
Sparkle Insights is a full-service research and strategy firm with extensive experience in insight development for Fortune 500 companies.  TFC is the leading worldwide and flagship multiplatform brand of ABS-CBN International.
 
To request for a copy of the full study, send an email request to ray_olano@abs-cbn.com. 
 

 
 
 

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