The Barcode Report Review 2021: A Year in Receipts
Looking back at the monthly Barcode Reports and purchasing trends in 2021 as we head into 2022.
The Barcode Report delivers the world’s deepest and most relevant insights on everyday consumer spending. We break down spend data into digestible and actionable facts, highlighting key trends that go beyond what you’d learn from simple card statements. We leverage item-level receipt data accumulated from millions of users across our network of banks, credit unions, and technology partners. The Barcode dives beneath the surface of “how much was spent and where” and provides a true look at what consumers and small businesses are spending their money on.
2021 proved to be another game-changer in consumer insights and behaviours. With the world changing around us, we captured this ebb and flow of consumer behaviours through our receipt data.
Earlier this year, we saw the number of grocery trips increase right after the lockdown was announced. Since January of this year, the number of grocery trips has been increasing at an average rate of 20% each month.
The grocery trips reflected everyone’s hidden desire to be professional bakers. Average spending on baking-related items had tripled since the onset of the pandemic. Today as we look back, consumer spend on baking-related items has increased by 150% since April 2021.
Grocery bills also proved that we were really missing the movie theatres. Consumers were spending 37% more on popcorn during the month of April. Close to 2 years into the pandemic, popcorn consumption is still steadily on the rise. Since April, the average consumer spend on popcorn has increased by 11%.
Once we had enough of the food sagas and bread making (well, we at the Data Lab can never have enough of food sagas!), it was time to turn our attention to see what else consumers were doing, now that they were spending so much time at home.
Canadian consumers were gearing up to make their homes more energy efficient with a new installation of doors & windows, while American consumers were trying to fulfill their dream of being in a Master Chef kitchen. Almost 6 months since we last checked in, kitchen improvements are still ongoing for American consumers. Average American consumer spending on kitchen-related improvements has doubled since May 2021. On the other hand, Canadian consumer spending on door & window installations declined by 90%, and on heating and ventilation by 65% since May 2021.
Then as vaccination clinics took off and travel restrictions reduced, we saw consumers jump back into traveling, but with caution. In June this year, we saw consumer spending on travel-related purchases increase by 121% among American consumers, while it had decreased by 86% among Canadian consumers. The pandemic landscape has changed and evolved rapidly since then.
As we look back at how travel has been impacted since then, we see that overall consumer spending among Canadian consumers has increased by 44% while it has declined by 15% among American consumers.
While we have done everything to fight the loneliness blues of the pandemic, we still turned to our four-legged fur-iends in Canada and the United States. We saw overall consumer spending on pet-related items increase by 143% as the pandemic started out.
However, this increase has slowed down since. Since July 2021, monthly consumer spending on pet-related purchases has dropped by approximately 12%.
As we approached the end of the third quarter, we became impatient for a sneak peek at what the months leading up to 2022 would be like. So we pulled out our crystal ball of predictive algorithms and predicted that we may be on a path to normalcy, with consumer spending returning to pre-pandemic times.
And guess what, we weren't that far off! Average consumer spending since August 2021 has continued to increase on average by 5% barring September 2021 where we saw a 10% decrease in consumer spending.
By October we were ready for the holiday season. To kick it off we decided the onus of settling the argument between apple pie vs pumpkin pie was on us.
If you missed the greatest debates of this year, apple pie vs pumpkin pie, be sure to check out the outcome here.
Finally, as we crept up to the shopping season, we discovered a lot of purchases were signaling more permanency in the “work-from-home” model.
We, at the Data Lab, have thoroughly enjoyed turning SKU level data from our receipts into meaningful insights. And as we wrap up this year and get our lab ready for more exciting experiments, here is wishing all our readers a Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!