In the third year of the great war, Ukrainians have begun to pay more attention to the brand, prefer Ukrainian businesses, and save money – but not on food and medicine. This is evidenced by the results of a consumer trends survey by Gradus Research, Komersant ukrainskyi reports.
According to the survey, as of March 2024, 62% of respondents pay special attention to the brand when making purchases, while in December 2022, the number was 54%.
In big cities, this attention is slightly higher, probably due to the wider choice of goods and services there.
Ukrainian consumers are increasingly choosing domestic brands. While in December 2022, 69% of respondents said they would buy goods/services from Ukrainian producers, the share of such respondents has now increased to 74%.
Ukrainians are also quite cautious about changing their usual brands. More than half (54%) choose familiar manufacturers. At the same time, 37% of respondents are ready to experiment and try new brands. And the key factor driving experimentation is the desire to support Ukrainian products (57%). The second factor is cost savings (45%).
Ukrainian consumers save a lot of money. Two-thirds of respondents (65%) prefer cheaper brands. One third of respondents (32%) have stopped buying their favourite brands.
Food and medicines remain at the top of consumption, and these are the categories on which people save the least. Education and transport/fuel costs are also the least affected by budget cuts.
At the same time, Ukrainians tend to cut spending on nonessential goods.
The majority of respondents continue to plan their purchases in advance (73%) rather than make spontaneous decisions.
People were surveyed by filling out a questionnaire in a mobile application. The sample size is 1045 respondents. The panel reflects the population structure of cities with more than 50,000 residents aged 18-60 by gender, age, settlement size and region, excluding the temporarily occupied territories and areas of active hostilities. The survey was conducted from 11 to 13 March 2024.