Hi everyone, it’s S here. I have some exciting news to share! I recently started planning a trip to Spain and Portugal. I have never been outside of the United States before, so this will be a totally new experience for me. Since I have never traveled before, I am curious to learn about how different consumer behavior is in these countries.
I think that it is important to note that Covid-19 is not completely over yet, and that we all should still keep trying to minimize spreading it by following the protocols that are in place by each country. Click here to see Entry and Exit Requirements for Spain. Click here to see Entry and Exit Requirements for Portugal.
As I previously wrote, there have been many behavior shifts due to Covid-19 The pandemic was very disruptive to the world’s economy. Although, things are starting to get better now, we haven’t fully recovered yet.
No one would have guessed that a pandemic would have stopped the world like Covid-19 did. There was no way for anyone to be fully prepared for this. I was curious to look at Hofstede’s Insights (found here) to see how the United States and Spain differ in the uncertainty avoidance segment.
What is Uncertainty Avoidance?
“The dimension Uncertainty Avoidance has to do with the way that a society deals with the fact that the future can never be known: should we try to control the future or just let it happen? This ambiguity brings with it anxiety and different cultures have learnt to deal with this anxiety in different ways. The extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these is reflected in the score on Uncertainty Avoidance”
-Hofstede Insights, 2022
Spain scored high on the Uncertainty Avoidance, they are actually the 2nd highest ranked country in this dimension. This means that as a society, the people of Spain attempt to make life as predictable and controllable as possible. These societies prefer rules and structure, and changes causes stress and anxiety.
That would make sense that in this article, there were major shifts with consumers during Covid. These shifts included:
- shift to value
- flight to digital
- caring commerce
- shock to loyalty
- homebody economy
Shopping in Spain was impacted due to the decline in consumer confidence. European consumers were looking for ways to save money, and specifically seeked more affordable alternatives to the products and brands they usually buy. Shoppers in Portugal and Spain are most inclined to do this compared to other European countries.
I am excited to learn more! Please feel free to leave tips/ suggestions on which places to visit in Spain or Portugal!