Brits promise brand loyalty after Brexit

Tuesday, April 4, 2017 - 12:42 by David Aiken

Consumers in the UK will keep buying premium brands even if Brexit leads to price rises, according to a survey conducted by the Centre for Retail Research. But analysts found that there is an upper limit to the loyalty of shoppers before cost plays a part in determining spending habits.

A thousand adults were questioned in the study, with over a third of respondents claiming that they will be better off in the immediate aftermath of the UK government’s decision to trigger Article 50. Forty per cent said that they will be in a weaker position financially, impacting their willingness to spend.

Close to two thirds said that even if the cost of buying a premium product from a brand they trust was to rise by 10 per cent over the next six months, they would still choose it over the more affordable off-brand alternatives. Meanwhile, only six per cent of people would be put off by price increases this steep, whether in store or via safe shopping online.

The loyalty of consumers seems to be fairly flexible, as even if prices rose by 15 per cent this would only dissuade a fifth of people from buying the brands they would normally choose.

Of course, at this point the speculation surrounding the nature of Brexit is all that shoppers have to base their decisions on, since negotiations are only just getting underway and will take at least two years to complete. So the full impact that this will have on pricing is not set to become apparent for some time.

Furthermore, the availability of shopping online means that people have an easier time of comparing prices and getting the best deals on the products they want, rather than being beholden to a handful of high street stores.