Industry update: Consumer

With the UK facing increasing inflationary pressure and buyers shifting towards environmentally responsible retailers, many players within the consumer sector have had to seek innovative responses to the challenge that the industry now faces.

Accounting for over 60% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the consumer industry is multi-faceted, dealing with the production, marketing and sale of goods and services to individual consumers and households. The industry comprises of a plethora of sub-sectors, including retail food and beverage, personal care, household products, apparel and footwear.

In our latest Industry Report, Deval Patel and Sonal Shah share their thoughts on the current sector landscape, including an overview of the primary sub-sectors, an analysis of trends in the market and a breakdown of notable deal activity.

Key takeaways from this report include:

• The Office for National Statistics reported that the proportion of total UK retail sales conducted online has grown from 19.1% in February 2020 to 25.5% in March 2023, peaking at 37.8% in February 2021, during the height of lockdown in the UK.
• The UK luxury goods market is expected to be worth £16.38 billion in 2023, growing annually by 2.49% (CAGR 2023-2028).
• Sustainability has become an increasingly important consideration for global consumers, with IBM reporting that 80% of consumers considered sustainability to be a significant factor when making decisions surrounding the purchase of products.
• Research conducted by multinational e-commerce company Shopify suggests that social media platforms bear a lot of weight when influencing users, with 70% of UK shoppers having already purchased through social media, and 79% of those who hadn’t, said that they are very likely to in the future. This data is only further supported by the hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt having over 46 billion views to date.
• 263 consumer M&A transactions were completed in the UK in 2022, with relatively steady deal flow quarter-on-quarter.