Our monthly shopper survey monitors the purchasing behaviour
of various retail categories online during the previous month made by a
household’s primary food and grocery shopper.
March saw the most dramatic rise in online shopping
behaviour since we started collecting data, and with an amazing 34% of shoppers
buying some food & grocery items online, demonstrates just how fast the
market is changing. Now of course, we
have seen that the high street foot fall had been effected considerably by the
recent snow, but is that really the only reason? And notwithstanding that, will
shoppers change their habits to embrace online more in the future?.....or is it
just a blip? I think not!
Three categories saw a distinct rise in online activity
during March (Cosmetics, Clothing/Shoes and Food & Grocery), with food
& grocery seeing the greatest percentage increase at 21% (28 to 34%
penetration). Yes, I know that online
sales only make up around 5% of total spend, but we could soon be getting to a
tipping point where previously estimated growth could be woefully low!
This will no doubt be cause for some head scratching within
the effected retailers, with their estates of larger format supermarkets, are
they really fulfilling the current needs of shoppers for flexibility and
convenience?
Of course ‘Click & Collect’ is definitely part of the
solution moving forward, as seen, for example, in the French market (although a
less mature online market overall), where over 50% items are ordered online,
and then collected from the store car park (or dark store)! This allows shoppers to be more in control
when it comes to timings, as well as only needing to order 2 hours in advance. So imagine ordering during the afternoon at
work, and picking up on your way home.
The effect of this rise in online shoppers within the food
& grocery sector isn’t quite as straight forward, as the same retailers are
getting the sales one way or another (in-store & online). We are also seeing
the rise of shoppers using non-standard channel such as Amazon to fulfil their
needs across a wide range of categories.
The advantages to shoppers are obvious, no minimum orders, lower or no
delivery charges, different SKUs available, not to mention the ease of order
other categories at the same time as the penetration of accounts is generally
higher than the standard retailers.
It really is time for both retailers and FMCGs to grasp the
opportunity that online has to offer, as we have seen recently from the client
work we carry out in this area, there’s lots of work to do, and small improvements
can yield great results!
Craig Bradley
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