A polished agency-style publication showing category movement, household pressure points, and practical implications from Dootsa survey data.
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Dootsa Research (A01). "Consumer Shift Report · Q1 2026." 10 May 2026. https://dootsa.com/insights/dootsa-consumer-shift-q1-2026
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This public report shows the market signal. A custom Dootsa survey can test brand recall, purchase intent, switching triggers, offer response, and segment-level differences.
grocery signals can help retailers understand what shoppers protect, trade down on, or delay when budgets tighten.
Question to run next
Which trade-off happens first: smaller pack size, cheaper brand, fewer trips, or switching stores?
Mobile-first households often reveal affordability, loyalty, and bundle-fatigue patterns before they show up in churn dashboards.
Question to run next
What makes a user downgrade, top up, or switch: price, coverage, data expiry, rewards, or customer support?
When essentials are under pressure, food-service brands need to know whether consumers are cutting visits or changing occasion type.
Question to run next
What keeps a quick-service purchase alive: value meals, location, taste, speed, loyalty rewards, or family deals?
Financial brands need to know which money pressures are practical, emotional, and trust-related before launching offers.
Question to run next
Which benefit creates the most trust: lower fees, flexible payment, cash-back, human support, or transparent terms?
This publication is intended to understand how household and industry spending priorities are changing across regions, so decision-makers can design more relevant surveys and interventions.
Households continue prioritising essential categories while discretionary spend remains cautious. Participation and response confidence indicate stable directional insight for planning. The data reveals that South Africans aren't spending less — they're spending with greater deliberation.
This flow view could not be laid out from the current dataset, so use the accompanying section text for this figure.
Two-thirds of respondents cancelled at least one paid subscription in the last six months. The most-quoted reason for cancelling: 'I forgot I had it.' The second: 'It auto-renewed at a higher price.' South Africans aren't falling out of love with streaming — they've grown allergic to silent renewals.
Financial confidence climbed slowly but surely over the period. The participation line dipped in winter, then quietly rebuilt — mirroring the broader macro sentiment recovery visible across other Dootsa data series.
Category × day breakdown
7 906 responses in view. Tap a coloured ring segment to zoom into that branch.
Bar view is best for direct comparison across spending categories.
Line view communicates directional momentum clearly over time.
Expand each published survey to see how respondents answered individual questions. Public view shows percentages only — no individual responses or free-text answers.
Share of responses per choice (rounded %)
Share of responses per choice (rounded %)
Share of responses per choice (rounded %)
Find the first behaviour consumers change when pressure rises.
The public report shows the signal; this follow-up explains the decision pathway brands can act on.
Example question: When grocery costs rise, what do you change first?
Break the headline finding by age, province, income band, and household context.
The next commercial question is not whether the signal exists, but who it matters to most.
Example question: Which group is most likely to switch, pause, or buy down?
Turn the insight into tested creative language before media spend.
A research finding becomes valuable when it improves messaging, offers, and product decisions.
Example question: Which headline feels most believable?
Build a custom Dootsa survey to test your brand, offer, audience segment, or next campaign idea.
Dootsa surveyed 9 210 South African members between 1 January 2026 and 31 March 2026 via the Dootsa app and web platform. Respondents were stratified across age (18–24, 25–34, 35–44, 45–54, 55+), gender, and province to broadly mirror Stats SA national distributions. Median completion time was 11 minutes. All figures shown are rounded; raw response data is held internally and used only in aggregate. Open-text responses were anonymised before analysis. Margin of error: ±1.0% at 95% confidence.
