The Retailer Winter Edition 2022

THE RE TA I L ER

8

THE HUMAN RESPONSE TO A WORLD IN FLUX

Georgie Altman Strategic Insight Lead Google

O ur changing relationship with the Since the emergence of Covid-19 we’ve been tracking key trends and themes using our Search and YouTube data - both fantastic barometers of consumer sentiment and behaviour. After two years of upheaval and change we’re now able to understand which trends were short term reactions and which of those are enduring. Over the course of the pandemic something fundamental happened - we went through a collective experience of upheaval and shock and this led to economic, personal, and social anxiety. To understand the human response to this we need to borrow from psychology. When people are anxious, or when they lack power, they typically respond in one of two ways: with fight or flight. We’re either driven to flee danger or feel compelled to stay and combat it. We can see these same sorts of responses playing out in digital behaviours over the past two years: 1) Fight: we looked for more control over different aspects of our lives. People did this in two ways, by seeking understanding of the world around them and by seeking order over their finances, careers, and personal lives. 2) Flight: we looked for escapism, to distance ourselves from uncer tainty. People did this by accessing more digital experiences and more entertainment than ever before. 1. Seeking understanding As the pandemic hit we saw huge increases in the volume of questions - primarily related to the virus and the new restrictions. As we became more familiar with our new contexts this flurry of questioning naturally died down. But, the urge to understand big complex topics and their impact on our lives is enduring. We’re seeing more and more questions around a number of areas including the economy, climate change, and social issues. In the chart belowwe can see the continued rise in the volume of ques tions starting with ‘what does’ that people are asking in Google Search. Though the volume toward the end of 2021 dips below that of 2020, it still remains higher than in previous years. internet and what it means for retailers

Taking a closer look at the specific types of questions people are asking, we can see they’re related to the big issues of the day. For example: • ‘What can I do about climate change’ up by 4,500% YoY • ‘If inflation rises, what happens to interest rates’ up by 3,700%YoY We can also see that searching for understanding is closely correlated to how confident people feel. We can see in the chart below that when anxiety occurs (when the red line goes down), the number of questions people ask about money and finance in Search, goes up.

2. Seeking order Responding to anxiety through fight is also about doing. Over the past two years we saw this manifest in different ways: getting on top of finances, exploring new careers, and accessing services that help us get things done. Work Searches for ‘writing a resignation letter’ rose significantly (+200%) in the last year as people sought to implement changes in their working lives. Finances In these times of acute uncertainty people have been galvanized to get on top of their finances and take their banking into their own hands. Through 2021we saw significant increases in searches for banking apps and contact numbers for banks. 1) Fight: we looked for more control over different aspects of our lives. People did this in two ways, by seeking understanding of the world around them and by seeking order over their finances, careers, and per sonal lives.” ‘‘