Study reveals shopping behaviour during Ramadan

ArabClicks, the affiliate network of the Arab world, in cooperation with OMNES Media, conducted a survey to analyse individual shopping behaviour and interaction during the holy month of Ramadan.

The survey conducted among 8,500 participants, of which 65% were male and the remaining 35% were female. The highest number of participants taking part in the survey were from Saudi Arabia with a total of 50%, they were followed by Egypt with 15% and UAE with 10% participants.

 “Analysis of consumer behaviour is essential to help get a deeper insight into consumer expectations. Studies help marketers better understand the needs of the consumers and focus their marketing efforts in either improving or changing them. I want to thank OMNES Media for supporting us on this project, and we also look forward to collaborating with them on future endeavours,” comments Mauro Romano, CEO and co-founder of ArabClicks.

Questions in the survey touched on various aspects of consumer behaviour. On asking whether purchases of food, drink, and household necessities are rising during the month of Ramadan, 57% of respondents strongly agreed, other 37% only agreed, whereas 5% did not agree while 1% strongly disagreed. When asked about how often they buy food, drink, and household items in a week, 30% respondents said once; another 28% said twice whereas the rest 21% purchase items thrice a week and 20% purchase more than thrice a week.

Respondents answering a question on whether the expense of buying consumable items increases during Ramadan, 60% agreed that their purchasing capacity increases by 50%. In contrast, another 15% said it increases by 100%. In comparison, 3% said it increased by 200%. The remaining 23% of respondents stated that their purchases do not increase at all during the month.

Approximately 58% of respondents said they find it convenient to purchase these consumable items from malls and supermarkets, 15% prefer shopping via digital platforms, another 15% using smartphone applications. In contrast, the remaining 12% prefer shopping through consumer associations. Some of the highly purchased items during the month include meat, poultry, and fish accounting 26% of the respondent’s purchases, 23% shop for vegetables and fruits, whereas 11% respondents purchase egg and dairy items. 

About 47% of participants highly rely on the type of digital services provided by consumer outlets in their country. About 30% of respondents feel the services do not meet the required standards in their country, 15% find it challenging to access these platforms due to digital problems. Another 9% believe there are not sufficient digital services in their country.

In terms of their preferred time to shop online, 23% shop between 8 am-12 pm, 27% find it comfortable to buy between 12 pm-4 pm, 24% between 5 pm-10 pm and 26% prefer shopping later in the night after 10 pm. About 63% of respondents make a weekly purchase of less than $100, 33% make purchases between $100-$300, whereas the remaining 4% spend over $300 in online shopping.