Online grocery sales in the UK are expected to double by 2014, according to research by industry analysts IGD.
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UK consumers will spend GBP7.2bn (US$11.8bn) on food and grocery shopping online by 2014, nearly double the figure for 2009, IGD said today (18 January)
Last year, 13% of adults shopped online for groceries – an increase of 63% on 2006, according to the IGD data.
Three out of five (61%) online grocery shoppers use more than one online store for their food shopping.
Meanwhile, half (49%) would like to try other supermarket websites, but many are put off by the perceived effort involved.
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By GlobalDataIGD also found that 30% of online grocery shoppers purchase less often than once a month, while 24% intend to try an alternative online supermarket in the next three months.
Around 34% expect to shop in a variety of outlets, including online, in the next five to ten years (compared to 27% in 2007), and a further 34% expect to only shop in a supermarket for everything. Around 7% expect to shop just online for food and groceries.
Joanne Denney-Finch, chief executive, IGD, said: “Our research shows there is a great opportunity for grocery retailers and manufacturers to encourage shoppers to try online food shopping.
“People are increasingly mixing the channels they use for their weekly or monthly shop. Many are choosing to visit their local store on a regular basis, while purchasing a number of bulk items, like tinned foods and toiletries, online less frequently.
“The future of grocery shopping is ‘multi-channel’, with people shopping in different ways and using various outlets – whether convenience stores, online or hypermarkets.”
According to the Office for National Statistics, 64% of people have shopped online at some point, but more than six in ten (61%) current and potential online shoppers said that removing delivery charges would be a key trigger for increasing online grocery shopping.
