Portugal’s shoppers go upmarket

A study by Nielsen reveals that the Portuguese are buying less, but spending increasingly higher amounts, especially on premium products, despite an overall trend of decreasing consumption.

“We found that the Portuguese are not buying more in quantity, but are buying higher priced categories or products, giving rise to a positive price effect,” Nielsen says.

It is this same positive price effect that leads Ana Paula Barbosa, retail director of Nielsen, to point out that, “it is necessary to take into consideration that, although there are still good growths in value, the same growth does not occur in volume. The retail outlook in Portugal remains positive, but the trend is slowing.”

Barbosa’s advice to retailers is, “Reduce your reliance on promotions, which continued to grow in 2018, and instead carry out promotions on premium-range products and go for higher quality and more sophisticated ranges.”

In the same study, most domestic consumers said they were willing to pay a higher price for premium products because they considered them to be of higher quality.

Despite the trend that Nielsen marks as slowing, the Portuguese are more optimistic.

In 2013, 89% of the Portuguese considered that the country was in recession, in 2018 this proportion reduced to 46%.

In addition, almost half of the Portuguese state that they believe that they have has an improvement in their financial situation. About 40% predict their employment situation will improve in the next 12 months and 28% say that given the current economic context, this is the right time to buy what they need.

In 2013, job security was the main concern but now it’s health.