The lockdown measures, introduced in response to Covid-19, have had a profound effect on the spending and saving of UK consumers. Yolt, a smart money app with over one million registered users, has analysed anonymised transaction data from a representative sample of its users, to show how lockdown has affected spending in the UK.

Since Yolt allows users to aggregate and view all their accounts in one place, regardless of which banks they use, sampling Yolt’s data gives a clear view of UK consumers. Below are some of the main findings.

Please note, weeks are compared with the same weeks in previous months, pre-lockdown, in order to make meaningful comparisons.

 Fast facts:

Since the last week of February and 1^st week of March (pre Covid-19) to the end of April, the UK population is:

• Reverting to the ‘the big shop’: While the amount spent on takeout has risen, spending on the weekly grocery shop has also increased by an average of 16%.
• Returning to the films of their childhood: The UK has been watching a lot of TV and films since lockdown was imposed. There’s been a 138% increase in subscriptions to Disney+ (since the service launched in the UK in March) and Netflix and Amazon Prime subscriptions are still seeing heightened popularity (Netflix subscriptions are up 9% and Amazon Prime up 20% since February).
• Treating themselves to some online clothes shopping: Despite an initial decrease in the spend on beauty and fashion products when we entered lockdown, demand for popular online fashion retailers such as Asos and PrettyLittleThing seems to have picked back up or in some cases increased by up to 50% since February. E-commerce payments in general are on the increase with a 53% increase in people choosing to pay via PayPal and an over 50% increase in people shopping at digital retailers Amazon and Argos.
• Enjoying a takeout: The amount of times users ordered food from JustEat has increased by 50% and Deliveroo by 21% since March, as more restaurants start to offer home delivery services. 
• Rediscovering their favourite games console – There’s been a jump of 355% on the amount spent on Nintendo games and hardware since February, with the spend on Xbox and PlayStation also skyrocketing by over 130%.
• Finding ways to make their money work: With daily spending down 26%, spending on the likes of transport and travel down by 65% and refunds from holiday companies and airlines up 48% - it’s reassuring to see that many people are putting these financial windfalls into their savings or investment portfolio. There has been an 82% increase in the amount of money put into savings accounts and a 16% increase put into investment portfolios since February. 

Yolt has recently launched its ‘Lockdown hub’, to share insightful blogs, guides and hints & tips style content on how to manage your finances through these uncertain times.

 Pauline van Brakel, Chief Product Officer at Yolt, comments:

“Covid-19 has caused upheaval in all our lives and UK consumers are having to adjust their lifestyles, in light of the government’s guidelines on social distancing. Our data shows that as the lockdown restrictions continue, we’re finding ways to keep entertained, such as discovering new TV programmes or rediscovering our enthusiasm for gaming, and we’re not forgetting to treat ourselves to the odd take away or two.

“It’s encouraging to see that for those of us who are managing to save on the costs of travelling into the office or on socialising at the weekend, those financial windfalls are being put into savings for the future.

 “Yolt’s mission has always been to support people with their finances, through good times and more difficult times, like the present. Digital tools and services like Yolt, provide transparency across all your finances, empowering people to establish good money habits.