More than half of consumers in the state of Rio de Janeiro, or approximately 7.8 million people, will present family and friends with party favors and clothes at the end of the year. According to a survey by the Fecomércio Research and Analysis Institute (IFec RJ), carried out with 503 consumers in the state of Rio de Janeiro, between November 26 and December 1, 56.5% of them intend to give someone a gift at Christmas. Compared to the same period in 2020, it represents a positive variation of 3.5 percentage points, but compared to 2019, in the pre-pandemic period, it is a decrease of 4.5 points.
This time, the end-of-year festivities will take place with the population of Rio vaccinated against covid-19. This changed a lot last year’s scenario, when the sanitary measures indicated by health experts transformed the meetings of people and the trade movement, a sector that has celebrations as the most important period of the year.
The survey also indicated that consumers are also more willing to spend a little more compared to 2020. The average went from BRL 495.47 last year to BRL 584.04 in 2021, an increase of almost BRL 90 real.
According to IFec RJ estimates, the financial movement in the economy of Rio de Janeiro should reach R$ 4.6 billion this Christmas. In 2020, it was BRL 3.3 billion and in 2019, around BRL 3 billion. “The fact that formal jobs have shown positive numbers in the state may have contributed to the good result, linked to the economic recovery. Gradually, these consumers may be channeling resources towards consumption”, evaluated the IFec RJ.
Consumer preferences are party favors (46.1%), clothing (46.1%), toys (31%), shoes, bags and accessories (26.8%), perfumes and cosmetics (22.5%), electronics (16.9%), books or ebooks (12.7%), household appliances (11.6%) and jewelry and jewelry (8.1%).
Among those surveyed, 48.9% were divided between physical stores and online. More than half of them (28.9%) intend to shop in physical stores and 22.2% only online. Despite the change in the epidemiological scenario, according to the study, the percentage of people who will shop in physical stores has not returned to the levels of 2019. Before the pandemic, it had been 43.6%.
The director of IFec RJ, João Gomes, said that, even with the total financial volume in 2021 greater than last year, due to the effects of the economic recovery, Christmas will again be one of small gifts. “In this year’s survey, we observed, as in 2019, a large percentage of consumers will opt for cheaper gifts, the famous party favors. In addition, we saw an increase in the percentage of people who said they intended to make their purchases in e-commerce, proving that the habit of purchasing items through online it must remain among the consumers of Rio de Janeiro”, he stated.
Fecomércio RJ
The Federation of Commerce of Goods, Services and Tourism of the State of Rio de Janeiro is made up of 59 Rio de Janeiro employers’ unions. The sector gathers more than 314 thousand establishments, which represent two thirds of the state’s economic activity, in 68% of the establishments in Rio de Janeiro, generating more than 1.6 million formal jobs in total. The number is equivalent to 60% of the jobs with a formal contract in the state. Fecomércio RJ also manages, in the state of Rio, the Social Service for Commerce (Sesc) and the National Service for Commercial Learning (Senac).
