New research from IGD forecasts that UK consumers will be spending £7.2bn on food and grocery shopping online by 2014. That’s nearly double the figure for 2009, when 13% of adults shopped online for groceries, and an increase of 63% on 2006.
Three out of five (61%) online grocery shoppers use more than one online store for their food shopping, IGD has found, and half (49%) would like to try other supermarket websites, but many are put off by the perceived effort involved.
The new study, Online Shopping 2009, also found that:
- 30% of online grocery shoppers purchase less often than once a month.
- 24% intend to try an alternative online supermarket in the next three months, and 25% would like to but are put off by the effort involved.
- 34% expect to shop in a variety of outlets, including online, in the next five to 10 years (compared to 27% in 2007).
- A further 34% expect to only shop in a supermarket for everything, and 7% expect to shop just online for food and groceries
“Our research shows there is a great opportunity for grocery retailers and manufacturers to encourage shoppers to try online food shopping,” says Joanne Denney-Finch, chief executive of IGD. “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,” she added.
