CCC Marketing and Kanazawa University identify changes in purchasing characteristics before and after the spread of COVID-19

2021.08.11 Press Releases
CCC Marketing Co., Ltd. / Kanazawa University

- CCC Marketing Research Institute x Kanazawa University Fujio Laboratory Joint Research Presentation ~ Industry-academia collaboration project aiming to solve regional issues using T-Point data ~

CCC Marketing Research Institute (Director: Niihashi Minoru), a part of CCC Marketing Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Kitamura Kazuhiko), which aims to solve local issues together with various parties as a "think tank closest to consumers," and the laboratory of Associate Professor Fujio Makoto (Transportation and Disaster Prevention Urban Planning Laboratory) of the Department of Interdisciplinary Science, Institute of Interdisciplinary Research, Kanazawa University, whose university charter states that it is "an education-focused research university open to the region and the world," launched a joint industry-academia research project in November 2020 to utilize T-Point data for "urban development for the region," and the results of the research have now been compiled.

Through this project, it was suggested that statistical processing of multifaceted big data, such as purchasing data and movement data from T-Points, which is used by over 70 million consumers across Japan, and utilizing this data as research data in the context of open science in collaboration with universities and research institutions, could help to resolve regional issues. Based on the results of this research, the CCC Marketing Research Institute will promote industry-academia collaboration efforts in various regions. The results of this research will be presented at the Japan Society of Civil Engineers meeting to be held in November 2021.

Research Summary

The spread of COVID-19 has forced Japan to adapt to new lifestyles, and one lifestyle behavior that has changed particularly as a result of the spread of the infection is purchasing behavior. The traditional purchasing style of going directly to a store to shop has rapidly shifted to services such as e-commerce (electronic commerce) purchasing, food delivery, and even mobile ordering.

Against this background, this study focused on purchasing behavior as an example of changing lifestyles, and used purchasing big data to analyze cities and towns in Ishikawa Prefecture.

The results showed that purchasing areas changed depending on the size of the city or town. In addition, by focusing on the region, age, purchases made within the city, or purchases made outside the city, we were able to gain insight into changes in purchase amounts and major purchase items before and after the spread of COVID-19.

Key points of the research

・News in the field of data utilization
There is a growing trend for data that was previously held only by companies to be used beyond the boundaries of the company and in a variety of fields. The same trend can be said for this research, which is a joint research project conducted through industry-academia collaboration with CCC Marketing. Furthermore, there has been no prior research in the field of civil engineering that utilizes purchasing data such as T-Card data.

・Approaching local issues from a consumer perspective
As a result, the purchasing areas suggested that the purchasing areas of all three cities in Ishikawa Prefecture analyzed had shrunk due to the spread of COVID-19. The shrinkage of purchasing areas also varied by city, with Kanazawa City and Wajima City, located at the tip of the Noto Peninsula, seeing large shrinkages, while smaller cities such as Hakui City saw smaller shrinkages.

・Suggestions for new urban development measures in the COVID-19 era
In addition to seeing changes in purchasing areas depending on the size of the city or town, we were able to gain insights into changes in purchase amounts and major purchase items before and after the spread of COVID-19 by focusing on region, age, purchases within the city, or purchases outside the city. It is expected that this will also be of help to local governments in considering policies to respond to future changes in lifestyles with and after COVID-19.

Comment from Associate Professor Makoto Fujio of Kanazawa University

As the spread of COVID-19 continues, infection prevention measures that affect citizens' behavior, such as state of emergency declarations and priority measures to prevent the spread of the virus, have been taken. In this environment, we believe that it is extremely important to focus on the behavior of "purchasing," which is essential to citizens' lives, when considering urban development measures in the COVID-19 era. This time, we used T-Point data to analyze citizens' purchasing behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic, and were able to find various patterns in terms of area, amount, and item. T-Point data is extremely valuable in shedding light on citizens' purchasing habits, and we expect it to be used in the future.


CCC Marketing's slogan is "UNIQUE DATA, SMALL HAPPY. "The group's mission is to create value from a wide variety of data using technology and ideas, connect individual lifestyles with the society around them, and bring small moments of happiness to each and every person every day. "UNIQUE DATA, SMALL HAPPY. We aim to create a society where this is realized.

Materials related to this matter

CCC Marketing and Kanazawa University identify changes in purchasing characteristics before and after the spread of COVID-19

Inquiries regarding this matter
・CCC Marketing Co., Ltd.
　Public Relations Officer: Ando / TEL: 03-6800-4464
Associate Professor, Department of Interdisciplinary Science, Institute of Interdisciplinary Research, Kanazawa University
　Shin Fujio/TEL: 076-234-4914