1、June 2025Retail and Consumer Packaged Goods PracticesState of the Consumer 2025:When disruption becomes permanentFive years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic,consumers crisis-era habits have lingered.Heres what organizations can do in the new environment to outcompete in the second half of th

2、e decade.This article is a collaborative effort by Becca Coggins,Christina Adams,and Kari Alldredge,with Alyssa Hopcus,Justin Shamoun,and Laura Bucklin,representing views from McKinseys Retail and Consumer Package Goods Practices.At the start of the decade,consumers adopted a slew of new behaviorsal

3、most overnightin response to the COVID-19 pandemic.Remote work,digital connectivity,and solo activities became the norm for life in lockdown.Today,the world has reopened,but the era of uncertainty and its impact on consumers linger.Globally,consumer sentiment is still poorer on average than it was a

4、t the beginning of 2020,and consumers remain concerned about rising prices and inflation.Despite this persistent uncertainty,they keep spending.In fact,the relationship between sentiment and spending has weakened.Meanwhile,consumers expectations for value and convenience have them making unexpected

5、trade-offs across categories:trading down in one place while simultaneously splurging on something else.These choices may be confusing to anyone trying to predict what consumers will do next.Its not that todays consumers are irrational;its that the old frameworks used to decipher their behavior no l

6、onger apply.What once seemed like short-term adaptations born of the COVID-19 pandemic have solidified into lasting behavioral change.As the world heads into the second half of the decade,consumer-facing companies confront new challenges,but knowing how to decipher an unpredictable consumer can help