The company surveyed nearly 8,500 consumers across the country to understand how the Omicron variant is affecting their shopping habits and behaviour. The online survey was conducted between January 6 and 13.

Despite the spike, the majority of shoppers (59 per cent) are taking the same number of trips to the store as they were a month ago and over half (53 per cent) are still comfortable participating in public indoor activities.

Consumers are still taking trips to the store, but 73 per cent are taking additional precautions while shopping due to the rise of Omicron, California-based Shopkick said in a press release.

Consumers also want retailers to take steps to protect shoppers, as the majority (71 per cent) expect in-store safety precautions such as disinfecting carts (84 per cent), enforcing social distancing (65 per cent), mandating masks (72 per cent), limiting store capacity (40 per cent) and putting a cap on the number of essential products each shopper can purchase (37 per cent).

While the majority of consumers (66 per cent) are not stocking up on essential items in preparation for another lockdown, gen Zers are most likely to stock up (41 per cent), compared to baby boomers (35 per cent), millennials (35 per cent), gen X (34 per cent) and the silent generation (34 per cent).

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)