Author: Tomas Hansson

The major banks dominate the student group – as in the population at large and cash payment is almost forgotten. They are for the most part replaced by digital payment in mobile or watch. That is, in a few sentences, a summary of the survey on banks and payment that we have done among Mecenat students.

Mecenat has started an exciting collaboration with the digital bank Lunar. They offer a new banking solution with all services completely online. Their customers, and now also Mecenat’s students, gets access to a completely new bank and financial services directly on their mobile phones. Without having to change banks, students can try out what the new generation of banking services has to offer during the launch campaign. In addition, they receive SEK 150 deposited in their newly started bank account.

This time of year, when the light has begun to return, a lot of people starts planning their vacation and looking for travel destinations. This is how it looks this year as well, but with a clear adaptation to the rules and restrictions that apply at present. Fewer people plan to travel and of those who do, the format will be smaller and the trips shorter.

More students order their groceries online and an unexpectedly large proportion also buy restaurant food with delivery to the door. When we look at the retail trade, it is the grocery giants that dominate in the student group, just as in the general population. These are some of the results from our latest Mecenat Insights on the topic of food and groceries.

Students appreciate their Mecenat app. During the fall, we passed 2 million downloads and they also like what they get. Just over 95 percent give the app very high ratings in the Swedish app-store, and they review it with comments such as “Best, so good discounts, flexible app!! Simple, flexible, good! Absolutely amazing”.

Mecenat has started a collaboration with the furniture and interior design chain Mio, which now offers student discounts on selected parts of its range. The student discount provides 25 percent lower price at duvets and pillows as well as free home delivery of selected beds.

We have asked the students about Christmas and the Christmas celebration and they seem well prepared that this year’s holiday will not be as it usually is. They are planning a small-scale celebration with the family and the majority will shop online for Christmas. A lot of them started last week by shopping bargain gifts during Black Week.

The number purchases with a student discount increased by 72 percent during this year’s Black Week, compared to the week before. This is basically the same increase we saw in 2019. This week makes a real difference for the students. The majority of them know what they are looking for, which means that the student group has saved millions of SEK on planned purchases during Black Week.

Corona restrictions have changed the way students use e-commerce. They both shop more and have greater width of purchases compared to before. These are two of the findings from our latest Mecenat Insights that we recently conducted to learn more about students’ changing behavior around e-commerce.