waitrose online delivery van

  • Online share was most significant at lunch – up 1.9 percentage points in w/c 13 April 2020

  • The distress top-up mission has declined in convenience stores this week 

 

Online supermarket deliveries have increased share across all mealtimes as demand for e-commerce continues to outstrip capacity, according to a weekly survey by Him and MCA Insight.

The latest Channel Pulse research of shopper and consumer behaviour across all UK food and drink channels showed increased online share was most significant at lunch – up 1.9 percentage points in w/c 13 April 2020 – with a 1.5 rise at dinner.

Foodservice delivery/takeaway also saw its share increase modestly for dinner and snack times. Looking forward to the coming week, consumers anticipated they would use the channel slightly more (+4pp) as several operators made announcements regarding re-opening on a collection/delivery-only model.

Other headlines for week five of Channel Pulse included:

  • ‘Friendly and helpful staff’ declined as a need for in-store grocery trips as shoppers seek to get in and out of stores as quickly as possible with minimal interaction.
  • Familiarity (‘where I always go’) wins across all parts of the day as the number one shopper need, reflective of the desire to increase speed of shop and therefore opting for a store with which shoppers are familiar.
  • Discounters have seen their highest expected increase in usage (+11%) across the five weeks of the Channel Pulse survey.
  • The distress top-up mission has declined in convenience stores this week and shoppers visited fewer stores, both metrics suggesting they needed fewer items urgently.
  • The main weekly shop mission increased among supermarket shoppers to 39% (from 34% the previous week).

“Delivery – in all its forms – offers a convenient solution, particularly during lockdown, but, on the grocery side, demand has been massively outstripping supply,” said Blonnie Walsh, head of insight at Him & MCA Insight.

“Retailers have been working hard to address this – demonstrated by Tesco’s announcement that it has reached a record one million deliveries in a single week. There continues to be strong appetite for online grocery, with a +23% shopper swing for the channel in the coming week.”

She added: “Meanwhile, foodservice delivery/takeaway had not been experiencing the growth we might have expected since the enforced closure of restaurants, but there is a positive uptick this week, with 4% of shoppers saying they plan to use the channel more in the coming week.”

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