Stay in control in uncertain times
Despite the wide variety of shopping groups and behaviors in different CEE countries, the main concerns are shared across the region: budget, health, and safety consistently rank as the top three worries.
Times are currently very unstable, and the further east one moves, the higher the concerns about personal and family safety. In contrast, immigration and climate change are more often top of mind in Western European countries.
Health is a growing concern among all shoppers, and as this is especially true for CEE shoppers. We will take a closer look at this topic in the course of this whitepaper.
Purchasing power has historically been lower in CEE countries compared to Western Europe. Additionally, Eastern European countries have been hit particularly hard by inflation over the past few years, first due to the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by the war in Ukraine. This led to double-digit inflation peaks of 13.2% in Poland and 14.8% in Czechia in 2022, and even 17% in Hungary in 2023.
However, the budget situation improved in 2024, with the number of CEE households struggling financially decreasing from 42% two years ago to 35% currently, the lowest since the start of the cost-of-living-crisis.
Struggling households
While improving, Hungary still shows the highest level of struggling households at 47%, followed by Serbia at 45%, and Croatia at 44%, with no significant decrease. In WSE, only Spain (47%) and Italy (40%) reach similarly high levels.
Comfortable households
The highest level of financially comfortable households in CEE can be found in the Czech Republic (28%) and Poland (26%), which is in line with the European average but still below top-level countries such as Denmark (44%) and the Netherlands (38%).
Despite some relaxation, CEE shoppers remain cautious. After worries about high prices temporarily declined, shoppers are now afraid that increasing prices will again affect their budgets. Between 37% and 56% of all shoppers in the region expect this to impact their shopping for daily necessities as well as their out-of-home activities. As a result, as many as 80% plan to spend less on going out.
Shoppers across Europe share a commonality: in difficult times with no control over countless critical factors, they remain cautious, and budget management helps them feel in control.