While it’s clearly an important issue, plenty of people seem willing to give some leeway to businesses. With lots of offices and call centres either closed or open but with lower staff numbers, maybe some consumers are trying to be understanding. How far they’re willing to take this understanding is a different matter.

A flexible return or refund policy is a much bigger deal to people. Half of respondents picked options four or five, with 29% specifically saying it would have a ‘big impact’. That’s a substantial amount of custom at risk due to this issue.

A lot more people are shopping online while stores are closed, which is likely boosting the number of returns people are making. This will be particularly acute for companies selling clothes. Clearly consumers are expecting businesses to adapt to this and make returning items as easy as possible.

We now reach the biggest issue of the lot. When it comes to how responsive or easy to contact a company is, 58% of people picked options four of five, with 37% specifically picking the latter.

This tells us that any company that goes dark during this time, either by ignoring emails or not answering the phone, are taking a big risk. Just 12% of people said this would have no impact on them using the company again.

It’s a simple lesson to take away. Make sure people have ways to contact you, and make sure you respond when they do. It’ll be key for retaining brand loyalty. Be sure to read our report on the topic to see what else needs to be done.

Consumers seeking money advice

Money has been on everyone’s minds during the pandemic, especially with the economic fallout beginning to show. We wanted to see how consumers were reacting to potential financial trouble.

Using our Consumer Research platform, we looked at English-language mentions of advice on money management from January 1 2017 – May 31 2020.

Mentions between March and May 2020 were up 36% on the average volume for the same period in the last three years.

Mentions began rising at the start of lockdown, with people looking for advice to help deal with the potential financial effects of the pandemic. But since then, mentions have kept up. They’re driven by people looking for help with:

• Mortgages – 424k
• Savings – 124k
• Investing – 109k
• General trading – 72k
• Insurance – 11k

It does seem like the number of consumers reaching out for money guidance on social media is waning, perhaps as the initial panic wears off.

But numbers are still way above average and, as fears for a second wave heat up, we are still seeing consumers trying to get their finances in order. That has included looking for ways to flip cash quickly, as we’ll find out next.

Day trading is thriving during lockdown

Looking at how people are thinking about making quick money during lockdown, we weren’t surprised to see a lot of folks on social media talking about day trading.

Using our Consumer Research platform, we looked at English-language mentions of day trading or day trades on social media since 2017. Mentions have jumped during lockdown.

Mentions in May were 75% higher than the average volume for the month over the last three years.

Primarily this increase was driven by people looking for a fun and quick way to make extra cash. There were 19k mentions of spending extra time playing on the day markets from March to May.

Conversation was driven by advice (3k mentions), developing a strategy (6k mentions), and tips on making day trading a long-term financial option (7k mentions).

It seems like day trading is only just starting to peak in popularity but, now that lockdowns are easing around the world, it will be interesting to see if the interest keeps up. With consumers still actively seeking advice about money, day trading could be one way households look to boost income in 2020.

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Brandwatch Response Team