Madrid – March 14, 2024. Spending on consumer goods, durable goods and home appliances in Spain amounted to 142.7 billion euros last year 2023, according to the new -NIQ Retail Spend Barometer published today. This is the first analysis report resulting from the joint collaboration between the firms NIQ and GfK. and aims to offer the clearest and most complete picture of purchases made by consumers in our country. 

This spending figure represents an increase of 9.2% compared to the expenditure made in 2022, a growth driven by the rise in prices of grocery products (food, cosmetics, personal hygiene and home care), while consumers limited their purchases of technology and durable goods (T&D), according to the study that measures the sales of these products in stores throughout Spain. 
 
NIQ’s Retail Spend Barometer provides a comprehensive vision of spending in the FMCG (packaged food, fresh produce and personal and home care products) and T&D (consumer electronics, home appliances and DIY) sectors in Spain. This big data overview across multiple categories and channels, based on actual sales data, is unique to date. The NIQ Retail Spend Barometer will be published quarterly in the future. 

Inflation continued to set the pace for the mass consumer market 

In 2023, Spanish households spent 10.6% more than the previous year to cover their basic food, home care and personal care needs. Almost all of this increase is explained by the sharp rise in prices, although they began to fall after the summer and this facilitated the recovery in demand. In fact, in the last quarter of the year, practically all sections closed with positive sales volume data, with only fresh fish consumption continuing to fall as in previous quarters. 

Packaged food grew in value above fresh products, partly due to the underlying trend of displacement of consumption or substitution of fresh produce for packaged products, which are easier to prepare and consume, and also because fresh food products experienced a lower price increase. 

Among packaged products, refrigerated and frozen products continued the positive trend they have shown in recent years and, alongside these, perfume products, which continued their favorable evolution they have been registering to date, although with slightly more muted growth on this occasion. And among fresh produces, eggs continued to be a lower-priced alternative to other categories and ended the year with double digit growth in demand (11.4%). In contrast, annual sales of fruit and vegetables ended practically flat in volume, with a limited evolution due to the cumulative effect of the price increase. 

These inflationary pressures affected the budgets of households, which were forced to adopt savings measures in their grocery shopping: such as promotions, the purchase of white label brands and tighter control over spending were the most widely used measures. Along with these, consumers also continued to shop more locally, making more frequent visits to stores and making smaller purchases, with a smaller average number of items in each basket, in order to control spending. 

Looking ahead to 2024, the main challenge for market players, manufacturers and retailers, lies in recovering volume growth, as price increases continue to slow down. Manufacturers are facing a very difficult environment with the continued growth of sales of white label brands in most categories. Retailers, meanwhile, are fighting the battle of loyalty and price in an extremely competitive market. 

Inflation continued to set the pace for the mass consumer market  

In 2023, Spanish households spent 10.6% more than the previous year to cover their basic food, home care and personal care needs. Almost all of this increase is explained by the sharp rise in prices, although they began to fall after the summer and this facilitated the recovery in demand. In fact, in the last quarter of the year, practically all sections closed with positive sales volume data, with only fresh fish consumption continuing to fall as in previous quarters. 

Packaged food grew in value above fresh products, partly due to the underlying trend of displacement of consumption or substitution of fresh produce for packaged products, which are easier to prepare and consume, and also because fresh food products experienced a lower price increase. 

Among packaged products, refrigerated and frozen products continued the positive trend they have shown in recent years and, alongside these, perfume products, which continued their favorable evolution they have been registering to date, although with slightly more muted growth on this occasion. And among fresh produces, eggs continued to be a lower-priced alternative to other categories and ended the year with double digit growth in demand (11.4%). In contrast, annual sales of fruit and vegetables ended practically flat in volume, with a limited evolution due to the cumulative effect of the price increase. 

These inflationary pressures affected the budgets of households, which were forced to adopt savings measures in their grocery shopping: such as promotions, the purchase of white label brands and tighter control over spending were the most widely used measures. Along with these, consumers also continued to shop more locally, making more frequent visits to stores and making smaller purchases, with a smaller average number of items in each basket, in order to control spending. 

Looking ahead to 2024, the main challenge for market players, manufacturers and retailers, lies in recovering volume growth, as price increases continue to slow down. Manufacturers are facing a very difficult environment with the continued growth of sales of white label brands in most categories. Retailers, meanwhile, are fighting the battle of loyalty and price in an extremely competitive market. 

Savings on T&D products

The situation is somewhat different for consumer technology goods, DIY and other categories such as gaming, movies and music on physical media, books, eyewear and tires. Here, spending increased by just 2.1% in 2023 compared to 2022, although performance has been uneven across the different categories. While consumer technology and DIY categories declined by 1.6% and 1.7%, respectively, sectors such as leisure, the publishing market and eyewear recorded growth of 6.8%. The return to life outside the home after the pandemic may play a role in these results. 

Sales in household appliances, meanwhile, rose by 3%. Consumers are increasingly focused on replacing defective items rather than buying new ones in their homes or upgrading working ones. This is due to low income expectations, as well as a reduced propensity to shop at home, combined with a certain saturation in the market of technological goods, which were in high demand during the pandemic. 

However, the small household appliances sector stands out, growing by 7.6% in 2023 compared to the previous year. Innovative and multifunctional products performed better than the market average and consumers were willing to pay a premium price. These include domestic fryers, up 19.6%, driven by airfryers; coffee machines, up 10.6%, with the rise of fully automatic expresso machines; hair care products, with hair dryers up 9.6% and hair stylers up 9.1%, as well as vacuum cleaners, up 7.5%, thanks to the rise of versatile broom-type vacuum cleaners. 

Pricing and brand management will determine success in 2024  

Patricia Daimiel, Managing Director for Iberia at NIQ said, “NIQ’s Retail Spend Barometer shows that 2023 was not an easy year for the T&D sector. However, FMCG retailers, such as supermarkets, are also feeling the effects of increasing competition for consumer budgets. To remain attractive and competitive in 2024 both manufacturers and distributors will have to manage their businesses even more strongly and dynamically.” 

“This also includes,” Daimiel continues, “ designing a greater variety of products. As a growth strategy, it would be useful to expand their own product rangse to include promising new categories. Our data shows which categories have prevailed in the market during 2023 and offers insight into upcoming trends.”  

Michael McLaughlin, President of Global Retail at NIQ said, “Market dynamics and consumer behavior are changing faster and faster. In a competitive environment, fragmented data and a dose of intuition are no longer enough. That’s why we use The Full View™ to provide our clients with a comprehensive, data-driven understanding of market developments and clear, actionable recommendations for future growth”. 

For more information, please visit NIQ Retail Spend Barometer (nielseniq.com).

About the Study 

The NIQ Retail Spend Barometer examines consumer spending on FMCG and T&D products in the (country). It tracks real sales figures and measures changes in past purchase trends. The FMCG categories covered include food, groceries, perishables and near-food, and the T&D categories include technical consumer goods, household appliances and DIY. The data comes from NielsenIQ and GfK retail market measurement, which together measure the sales of over 350,000 retail partners worldwide. 

Media Contacts 

GfK Antonieta Martín Martin, antonieta.martin@gfk.com, 915 919 940 

NIQ Piers Finzel, piers@finzelpr.com, 666 178 028 

Susana Gómez, susana@finzelpr.com,  649 845 649 

About GfK – An NIQ Company 

GfK has earned the trust of our clients around the world by solving critical questions in their decision-making process. In 2023, GfK combined with NIQ, bringing together the two industry leaders with unparalleled global reach. Together, we fuel client’s growth by providing a complete understanding of their consumers’ buying behavior, and the dynamics impacting their markets, brands and media trends. With a holistic retail read and the most comprehensive consumer insights – delivered with advanced analytics through state-of-the-art platforms – NIQ and GfK deliver the Full View™.   

For more information, visit GfK.com and niq.com 

About NIQ 

NIQ is the world’s leading consumer intelligence company, delivering the most complete understanding of consumer buying behavior and revealing new pathways to growth. In 2023, NIQ combined with GfK, bringing together the two industry leaders with unparalleled global reach. With a holistic retail read and the most comprehensive consumer insights—delivered with advanced analytics through state-of-the-art platforms—NIQ delivers the Full View^TM.  

NIQ, is an Advent International portfolio company with operations in 100+ markets, covering more than 90% of the world’s population. 

For more information, visit NIQ.com.