With the recent launch of industry and subindustry breakouts in machine readable files (and coming soon on dashboards!) for its pan-European data, Consumer Edge allowed customers to take a step back and see how macro trends compared across countries. In today’s Insight Flash, we compare trends across seven countries when it comes to total tagged spend growth, which countries spend the most on which industries, and which industries have seen the highest global growth in the beginning of the year.
For most of 2022, United Stated tagged spend growth outperformed that of our covered European markets. That growth decelerated as the year progressed, however, and in March of 2023 the UK pulled ahead with higher spend growth, along with the small market of Austria. During the same period, France had the most negative tagged spend growth in our sample, although trends have accelerated dramatically in the beginning of 2023.
Total Tagged Spend Growth
For each of these countries, there are different types of businesses driving the change in spend. Looking at the share of tagged transactions each market has by industry, it is clear that some countries are more overindexed to certain types of businesses. For instance, the percent of spend at Discount/Club stores coming from the US is over 1.5 times the percentage it contributes to other industries. Americans also spend more than their fair share on Insurance and Convenience/Drug/Diet products. In the UK, spend is more indexed towards Leisure/Recreation, Department Stores, and Grocery. Across the EU, there is a general skew towards Ground Transportation and Financial Services companies representing a larger share of spend tagged in our data. Beyond these two industries, however, there are some interesting concentrations. Spain represents a higher-than-average share of spend in Apparel, Accessories, & Footwear as well as Travel. Austria has a higher share in Beauty. France and Italy share a relative affinity for Services as well as Leisure/Recreation, though the French represent a highest share of Specialty Services and the Italians a higher share of Apparel, Accessories, & Footwear.
Country Transaction Skews by Industry
Although the country skews by industry are very different, many of the growth patterns are the same across the US and Europe. In calendar 1Q23, Travel was a clear industry winner, with the highest or second-highest tagged spend growth rate in every single country tracked by CE data. Pet Products/Services was also a consistent winner with double-digit growth in every country but Italy. On the flip side, Luxury spend was battered with y/y declines in every country but Austria, where it was flat.
Country Spend Growth by Industry
