ArabClicks, the affiliate network of the Arab world, in cooperation with OMNES Media, a leading online media and marketing solutions provider conducted a survey to analyse an individual’s shopping behavior and interaction during the holy month of Ramadan.

The survey was conducted among 8,500 participants of which 65 percent were male and the remaining 35 percent were female. Participants from Arab countries took the survey of which the highest number was recorded in Saudi Arabia with a 50 percent participation, followed by Egypt with a 15 percent and UAE with a 10 percent participation rate.

Mauro Romano, CEO and Co-Founder of ArabClicks, said: “Analysing consumer behavior is extremely essential to help get a deeper insight into the expectation of consumers. Doing so can help marketers better understand the needs of the consumers and focus their marketing efforts in either improving or changing them. I would like to thank OMNES Media for supporting us on this project and we look forward to collaborating with them on many such successful endeavors.”

Questions in the survey touched on various aspects of consumer behavior. On asking whether purchases of food, drink, and household necessities are rising during the month of Ramadan, 57 percent of respondents strongly agreed, other 37 percent only agreed, whereas 5 percent did not agree while 1 percent strongly disagreed. When asked about how often they buy food, drink and household items in a week, 30 percent respondents said once, another 28 percent said twice whereas the rest 21 percent purchase items thrice a week and 20 percent purchase more than thrice a week.

Respondents were then asked whether the expense of buying consumable items increases during Ramadan to which 60 percent agreed that their purchasing capacity increasing by 50 percent, whereas another 15 percent said it increases by 100 percent, by 200 percent for approximately 3 percent, while the remaining 23 percent respondents suggested that their purchases do no increase at all during the month.

Approximately 58 percent of respondents find it convenient to purchase these consumable items from malls and supermarkets, 15 percent prefer shopping via digital platforms, another 15 percent using smartphone applications, while the remaining 12 percent prefer shopping through consumer associations. Some of the highly purchased items during the month include meat, poultry and fish accounting 26 percent of the respondent’s purchases, 23 percent shop for vegetables and fruits, whereas 11 percent respondents purchase egg and dairy items.

About 47 percent participants highly rely on the type of digital services provided by consumer outlets in their country. 30 percent respondent feel the services are below required standards in their country, 15 percent find it difficult to access these platforms due to digital problems whereas another 9 percent believe there aren’t sufficient digital services in their country.

In terms of their preferred time to shop online, 23 percent shop between 8am-12pm, 27 percent find it comfortable to shop between 12pm-4pm, 24 percent between 5pm-10pm and 26 percent prefer shopping later in the night after 10pm. About 63 percent respondents make a weekly purchase of less than $100, 33 percent make purchases between $100-$300, whereas the remaining 4 percent spend over $300 in online purchases.