Indonesia has seen an increase in Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases since the beginning of the year. Despite cases starting to decrease at the beginning of February, social distancing restrictions are still in place and with consumers staying at home, online product availability is still fluctuating.
Countries around the globe have been in and out of lockdowns throughout 2020 and into 2021. In response to this shifting landscape, Euromonitor International has been tracking changes in online pricing and product availability across 10 industries to see how online retailers have responded to peaks in demand in different countries.
Looking at Indonesia in particular, we can track how different product categories have been affected in terms of changing SKU availability and out-of-stock rates (OOS%) between 19th January and 19th February 2021.
Tissue and hygiene products still in high demand
Since the start of the pandemic, tissue and hygiene products have been in high demand across the globe. In Indonesia, retail adult incontinence products saw the biggest decline in available online SKUs, with a decrease of 52.8%, as a result of at-risk or elderly consumers shifting towards at-home care while isolating or shielding from the virus. General purpose wipes also saw a 22.2% decline in available online SKUs during this time and toilet paper was also in high demand.
At-home cleaning products saw decreasing availability
Multi-purpose cleaners and home care disinfectants saw declining SKU numbers online, both at around -12%, with consumers stepping up their cleaning routines at home to remain safe from the virus. Looking at out-of-stock (OOS%) rates, however, they aren’t as steep, suggesting online retailers are removing SKU pages in response to increased demand for cleaning products, instead of listing them as out of stock.
Fresh and packaged food saw declining SKU availability
Staple food products, across both packaged and fresh food, saw big drops in SKU availability. Noodles saw the biggest decline in available SKUs online, with a 20% decrease and again, OOS% only increased by 2%, showing that online retailers are removing SKU pages instead of keeping consumers more informed of stock levels.
For fresh food, starchy roots and vegetables saw the biggest fall in SKUs available online, at -44.6% and -20.8% respectively. This shows that consumers are buying increased fresh and packaged food products during the pandemic, as more people eat meals at home and eat out less.
How we track SKU availability and OOS%
When tracking product availability, it is important to track both out of stock % and number of available SKUs as they result in two very different shopping experiences. To deal with increased demand during the pandemic, some retailers removed SKU pages altogether instead of listing SKUs as out of stock. If out-of-stock rates are low, but the number of available SKUs is rapidly decreasing, it creates confusion for the shopper to see SKUs being removed without notification. On the other hand, if out-of-stock rates are high but the number of SKUs remains stable, then shoppers are more informed about the overall availability of products on a retailer’s website.
With Euromonitor International’s new global e-commerce product and price monitoring platform, Via, we were able to quickly and easily examine more than 20 million daily SKU observations across leading e-commerce retailers in 40 countries to track how the availability of selected categories and their pricing dynamics changed throughout the pandemic. Use our Coronavirus: Pricing and Availability Tracker to learn more.