The online grocery market is set to top £11bn in sales in 2017 as more shoppers turn away from the weekly supermarket trip.
Online grocery sales will grow by 12% this year, Mintel research has forecast, taking the market’s worth from £9.9bn to £11.1bn.
Mintel’s survey of shoppers found more and more were choosing online over bricks-and-mortar stores.
The research showed 14% of Brits do all of their grocery shopping online, up from 7% in 2014. And 48% do at least some of their grocery shopping on the web, compared with 43% two years ago.
Unsurprisingly, these figures were higher among the younger 25-34 age group, of which 62% used online grocery shopping.
The Mintel survey also revealed a higher purchase frequency among existing users. Of the online shoppers surveyed, 29% had started to do a higher proportion of their grocery shopping on the internet over the past 12 months.
Nick Carroll, senior retail analyst at Mintel, said online was the “quickest-growing grocery channel”.
“Once seen as simply a service to replicate the needs of a supermarket shop online, a number of new services came to market in 2016 that have the potential to elevate online grocery beyond this barrier and adequately serve the more fluid and frequent shopping behaviours seen in the wider market,” he said.
“Growth is being driven by encouraging users who have done most or some of their shopping online to do more. This suggests that it’s just as crucial for online grocery retailers to engage as much with their current consumer base as it is for them to attract new shoppers to drive sales.”
Earlier this month, Kantar Worldpanel revealed online had grown to take more than 7.3% of total UK grocery spend, up from 6.7% last year.
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