April 11, 2020 1:37AM

Impact of COVID-19 on Malaysian Consumers

Vodus Insights conducted a survey of 16,000 Malaysians to understand how the impact of recent Movement Control Order (MCO) on work pattern, sentiment, lifestyle and media consumption behavior.

We found that productivity was impacted due to majority of Malaysians spending less than 4 hours a day working over the internet. 44% respondents said they spent between 1 to 4 hours working. Another 21% spent less than 1 hour working over the internet.

28% of respondents are working from home because of the MCO while 17% are still working at their usual work place. 7% of respondents said they lost their job because of Covid-19. This is almost double of Malaysia's unemployment rate before MCO. On the state level, the highest percentage of job loss came from Johor at 14%, followed by 12% in Terengganu. 

86% Happy with Government’s Response

Overwhelming majority (86%) of respondents are happy with Malaysian Government’s response in handling the Covid-19 pandemic.

Half of respondents are optimistic about the future whereas 44% are uncertain. 

Disruption to Plans

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected many Malaysian's plans. 40% of respondents have to cancel travel plans, both domestic and international. This is followed by Social plans (12%) and Wedding (7%).

Killing Time at Home

37% of respondents spent their extra time doing spring cleaning during the MCO. This is followed by browsing the internet (31%), reading books (18%), Gardening (12%) and Home improvements (7%). 

Nearly half of Malaysians are spending more time on online news and lifestyle portal during MCO than before, where as 38% of Malaysians are watching more TV at home. 13% of respondents read more newspaper while 10% spends more online

Shopping Behaviour During MCO

Majority of Malaysians are still using traditional channels for their shopping for groceries and non-food items. However, there is significant increase in online shoppers during the MCO, with 54% increase for non-food shopping and 144% increase for groceries. 

More Home Cooking

86% of respondents said they are cooking at home during MCO. Only 15% order Takeaway and 8% order online food delivery. Nevertheless, our survey has shown there has been a 61% increase in online food delivery during the MCO.