The sudden outbreak of coronavirus has affected every sector, but the direct impact is led on the consumer goods industry in the both domestic and international market. The study conducted by the Institute for Supply Management resulted that 76% of the businesses had to reduce the current revenue targets to 23%. Besides, the entire consumer goods industry is forced to step into the digital era for their survival.

However, the lack of cash flow will pull back this implementation, at the same time this shift was foreseeable. The sales drop was also witnessed by the retail stores resulting in a significant loss of foot traffic. But for some sectors, such as frozen food and household cleaning businesses the online shift turns out to be prosperous; owing to their positive attitude towards the consumer demands demand, and their supply.

Fashion industry

The global fashion industry is completely shut down due to the spread of coronavirus; resulting in a decreased sale, employee layoff with no pay, etc. According to the data analyzed by the United States, Fashion Industry Association’s benchmarking study in the fashion industry unveils the impact of severe supply chain interruptions to the US fashion companies.

The study further enlisted the issues faced by the garment factories accounting for the shortage of laborers whereas issues faced by the contracted garment factories were to deal with the supply of textile raw materials coupled with the increasing price of logistics and shipping. The report also stated that 96% of the total respondents estimated to have a decreased sales revenue in the existing year.

Other concerns associated with the industry acknowledge the availability of the product with capacity constraints, lack of clarity about future demands, and the potential long-terms import gaps for products made in impacted countries and regions. All these acts as growth hampering factors, which will restrict the overall market growth of the fashion industry.

Household and Healthcare Sector

The COVID-19 impact is also observed by the healthcare and household industries. The outbreak of coronavirus propelled the growth of medical ventilators, demand for pulse oximeters, and other essential supplies including medicines, hand sanitizers, masks, PPE kits, etc.

On the other hand, the household goods market growth acknowledged due to COVID-19 accounts for the growing demand for coffee machines, air purifiers, dishwashers, vacuum cleaners, etc.

Besides, both of these markets have keenly observed the growing demand of the market and have acknowledged the need accordingly and efficiently. Factors such as the shifting focus of manufacturers of these markets on optimizing the manufacturing process, growth witnessed by the e-commerce sector and DTC sales, improvement of delivery logistics, assessment and modeling impact on the demand, along with the evaluation of pricing and trade investments are responsible for the growth recorded by these markets during this fiscal period.

Packaged Food and Consumer Packaged Goods Market

The packaged food and consumer packaged goods market is also observed to have a promising growth in 2020 and is expected to grow at the same pace during the forecast years. Factors such as the increasing count of consumers from middle-income groups, modernization, and concentration of trade, growing digital consumers, health and wellness concerns, and increasing volatility in input cost are responsible for favoring the growth of this market.

In addition, the changing consumer behaviors accounting to the stockpiling, selection of trusted brands, increased snacking activities, rising awareness about food safety issues, and e-commerce acceleration are also likely to push the growth of packaged food market in a positive direction during the predictable years.

The impact of coronavirus on changing consumer habits has affected the preference of shopping lists, including the mode of shopping. Besides, the companies associated with these markets are working on numerous updated and new models on how to suppress the damage caused due to this pandemic. So far, the factors such as the supply chain and flexible production, focus on real-time consumer and shopper insights, functioning on enhanced consumer and customer support issues, proper dealing with Omnichannel and sales force management, and working on capital and financial performance management were found to be eligible in offering lucrative growth opportunity for the consumer goods market.

Other factors including technological stability, product portfolio evolution, transformation and agility, and the workforce protection relationship with flexible working were also proved beneficial in stabilizing the business growth. Some accelerating trends were also responsible for positively influencing the consumer goods industry. They are as follows:

• Health and well-being of an individual: Studies revealed that the majority of the population agreed to the fact that this pandemic will increase the focus on health.
• Acceptance of local products: Nearly half of the consumers are likely to sustain the increase in buying locally sourced goods.
• Digital commerce: Reports suggested that this industry is likely to have a 160% increase in e-commerce purchases from new for low-frequency uses.
• Consumers as creators: More than 60% of the consumers are trying New recipes for cooking methods such as homebrewing, baking, etc.
• Converting a home to hub: Approximately 20% of the users are investing in home automation systems due to the sudden outbreak of coronavirus.
• Distributed working: Nearly 35% of the employees are planning to increase the frequency of work from home.

Henceforth, the impact of the corona virus is resulting in the remodeling of working models in numerous industries. Some sub-sectors within this industry are likely to have a flourishing growth whereas others still struggle to survive with the pace.