Impact of COVID-19 on the Global Flavored Water Market
The novel coronavirus disease has been declared as a worldwide epidemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). The global pandemic, COVID-19, has created a chaotic environment, resulting in the advent of global rescission. The pandemic has affected the commodity market in many ways. The demand for essential commodities such as groceries has been witnessing a rapid rise. Due to the outbreak, consumers have become health conscious and are maintaining diets that can help them boost their immune system. As the intake of water in adequate quantities is essential for the body as it boosts the metabolism, immune system, and detoxes the body. Thus, the demand for flavored water is on the rise. Moreover, the preference for natural and organic flavors in flavored water is growing at a rapid pace as the herbs and plant sources infused in flavored water is highly beneficial for human health.
Though there is a huge demand for flavored water among the consumers, various factors are affecting the market. The outbreak of COVID-19 has created a panicked situation among the consumers with temporary closures of retail stores in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus. This led to panic purchasing among the consumers and the stockpiling of essential items such as food and beverages. Stockpiling activity among the consumers has also resulted in creating immense pressure across supermarkets & hypermarkets and convenience stores as they are running out of stock, and the grocery shelves for popular items sit empty. However, this erodes the consumer brand preference, which is putting forward the products of small regional players in market consumption.
Moreover, in response to the pandemic, consumers have been put under lockdown with several countries announcing stay-at-home orders. This is rapidly accelerating the transition to e-commerce. Online shopping is experiencing substantial growth over the past few years across the globe, with grocery being the least contributing category. However, in this current situation, the grocery category accounts for the largest share in the e-commerce orders. There is a surge in the average daily downloads for popular digital grocery apps in a month. Households that are relying on home delivery through online grocery shopping during the pandemic are likely to continue with the service post-COVID-19. Thus, non-store-based distribution channels are expected to witness the highest growth for the consumption of flavored water in the coming years.
Although the demand for flavored water is anticipated to increase, issues such as supply chain disruptions, logistics issues, limited availability of raw materials, and unavailability of labor are anticipated to cripple the growth of the global flavored water market up to some extent. With barriers in the cross-border transportation of commodities in this pandemic situation, the flavored water manufacturers are dependent on local raw material suppliers, which increases the bargaining power of the suppliers. The limited availability of raw materials and low production capacities of the manufacturers is anticipated to create a demand and supply gap, resulting in increased retail prices of the product.
Table of Content
- Impact of COVID-19 on the market
- Impact on raw material availability
- Impact on supply chain
- Impact on product pricing
- Impact on store-based vs online sales
- Impact on buying decision of customers/consumers
- Impact on end-use industries
