A convergence of factors - geopolitical instability, climate shifts, economic flux, and shifting demographics - is fuelling the ongoing phenomenon of mass migration and altering consumer landscapes. Understanding mass migration's impact and opportunities is vital for businesses to adapt and succeed. Integrating multiculturalism into company strategy, ensuring affordability and value for money, in addition to simplifying and innovating to support expatriates, will allow businesses to leverage opportunities.
Immigration shapes the host country's consumer trends
The impact of immigration seeps into consumer markets by increasing the target audience, broadening innovation opportunities, and driving an emergence of the multicultural mindset. Expatriates' authentic consumption patterns broaden the taste map of native citizens and shape the demand in many categories, particularly in food, leisure and recreation, and beauty and fashion industries. In Euromonitor International’s Voice of the Consumer: Lifestyles Survey 2023, one in three global respondents agreed that it is important to experience cultures other than their own.
Modest-income migrants boost sales
Migrant workers pursue international relocation to enhance their quality of life and support their families. Naturally, a significant number of migrants fall into the modest-income group. They are pivotal in driving growth within essential sectors such as food and beverages, housing, clothing, and footwear.
Players focus on these consumers through enhancing allyship and collaboration, first and foremost. For instance, in 2022, Coca-Cola Nepal brought back 14 Nepali migrant workers from Kuwait to celebrate Dashain and Tihar with their families. In Kuwait, where foreign citizens comprise 67% of the population, such an initiative contributes to better brand awareness and trust among expatriates and, ultimately, higher sales.
Remittances empower businesses in the home country
Remittances, money sent by migrants to their home countries, play a crucial role in home countries.
Globally, remittance outflow grew by 12% from 2017 to 2022, accounting for USD525 billion
Source: Euromonitor International
It bolsters the economy by contributing to the country's GDP growth through increased spending and investment of expatriates' families. They often serve as a crucial lifeline, funding education, healthcare, and other essential needs in the sender's home nation.
Expatriates actively look for solutions that ease money transfer and financial investment. Realising this need, in February 2023, India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) - the real-time retail payments system - and Singapore's PayNow were integrated. It makes cross-border remittance transfers more convenient, quick and cost-efficient without having other payment systems on board.
Similarly, technology, finance, logistics and housing sector businesses are building on this opportunity. For instance, in 2022, the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) sponsored mortgages to empower Nigerians in the diaspora to own houses across the country without needing a physical presence. This solution worked well because many Nigerian expatriates wanted to own, build, or acquire their own properties in Nigeria.
Mass migration: How to win
To survive and grow with the changes brought by mass migration, players need to:
- Integrate multiculturalism in their strategy: Migration expands the market and drives demand for diverse solutions, cultivating a multicultural consumer base. Businesses should prioritise crafting a robust inclusion strategy to capitalise on these opportunities.
- Keep affordability and value central to all offerings: Players should focus on understanding and catering for the purchasing power of modest-income immigrants. Despite limited resources, this demographic drives significant demand. Prioritising perceived value and affordability in products and services will enhance businesses' long-term market positions.
- Simplify and innovate to ease remittances and fund transfer: The drive to improve the lives of families in their home countries increases the demand for efficient remittance solutions. Players must address sender challenges to meet this demand.
Read our article Consumer Market Flashpoints: Finding Opportunities Despite the Uncertainty for further analysis on the drivers of Consumer Market Flashpoints.