A survey has found that 34% of UK consumers have stopped purchasing goods and services from the European Union since the UK officially left the world’s largest trading block.

Eskenzi PR & Marketing, which carried out the research, highlights that since Brexit’s historic change in the relationship between Europe and the UK, stories have circulated – anecdotally and in the media – about the changing relationship between EU retailers and British consumers, with Mastercard reportedly hiking fees on UK consumers purchasing goods from the EU, and the Guardian reporting in January about £100 custom bills for UK consumers.

However, these it says the survey results indicate that the mass exodus of UK consumers from Europe appears to be moving at a slower rate than many experts predicted.

“Following all the bad publicity around buying products from the EU post Brexit, it is clearly having an impact on consumer buying habits”, said Yvonne Eskenzi, co-founder, and Director at Eskenzi PR. “It is evident to see that UK consumers are being put off buying goods from the EU due to the various complications Brexit has created. We can only hope that this is a temporary measure: Post-Brexit Britain is still in its embryonic stage, and the true nature of our new relationship will have to be measured across the course of the following months – and indeed, years.”

The survey also revealed the following trends:

• Costs and delays were the biggest concern for younger consumers, with 24% of 16–24-year-olds suggesting an increase in cost had put them off, and 26% suggesting increased delays were behind the decision to stop shopping with Europe.
• Men appeared to take a more ‘combative’ stance to EU relations than women, with nearly double the men indicating they would not buy EU goods for ‘ideological reasons’ as opposed to their female counterparts.

The survey was conducted online by Censuswide with a representative sample of 1,000 UK consumers, between February 1^st 2021 and February 3^rd 2021.