Online shopper intelligence report reveals changing consumer habits when it comes to buying groceries across multiple channels
Online shopper intelligence report reveals changing consumer habits when it comes to buying groceries across multiple channels
The convenience of online shopping and retailer’s website functionality are key motivations for the adoption of online grocery shopping by consumers, according to a new report.
One in five (20%) of the UK internet population visit the leading grocery retailers’ websites each month, with an average of 1.3 million consumers purchasing online.
Convenience drives grocery shopping online
The Online Shopper Intelligence Report, published by market researcher Kantar Media Compete, found key motives among 1,500 UK consumers questioned were the ability to shop at anytime (60%), having groceries delivered to the door (58%), and the avoidance of carrying home heavy items (55%).
Over half (57%) of the people purchasing groceries online do so at Tesco – a larger share of the market than the retailer sees at its bricks-and-mortar outlets. Asda came second (33%), followed by Sainsbury’s (18%), Ocado (5%), Amazon grocery (4%), Waitrose (2%) and Marks and Spencer (1%).
Search was identified as the leading referral source to the top grocery retailers. A review of actual search terms identified that 69% of online grocery shoppers had clear intent to shop with specific retailers. Just under a third (31%) of searches are for fresh food items, while 24% are for recipes and 12% are for processed food.
Speeding up checkout important online
The report also highlighted the importance of tools that make shopping online easier and faster for consumers. It shows that an average of 57% of online grocery shoppers visited their list of ‘favourite’ or ‘last purchased’ products before checking out. This rose to 71% for Tesco shoppers and 66% for Sainsbury’s. Waitrose shoppers were least likely to do this, at 27%.
Consumers value the convenience of online recipes provided by supermarkets. Waitrose sees the highest number of visitors visiting its recipe pages (20%), compared to Ocado (10%), Tesco (6%), Marks and Spencer (5%), Asda (4%) and Sainsbury’s (2%).
The report offers retailers insight into the profiles of online grocery shoppers. ‘Heavy shoppers’ buy 62% of groceries online and 38% offline and have an average basket value of £144. This compares to ‘light shoppers’ who buy 28% online and spend £82 on average per shop. A further 69% of heavy shoppers use a range of grocery retailers, compared to 17% of light shoppers.
Adding flexibility grows channel shares
Jeremy Radcliffe, Kantar Media Compete managing director, commented: “Our latest Online Shopper Intelligence report shows the importance placed by the time-strapped consumer on the flexibility and convenience of doing their grocery shopping online. This includes being able to shop at a time that suits them, being able to add purchases to their basket instantly, and the availability of new recipes to inspire their shopping lists. These are key indicators for how supermarkets can encourage an increase in online grocery shopping.”
He added: “The growth of online grocery signifies a shift to ‘multichannel’ shopping, rather than an outright substitution of one channel for another. People are increasingly mixing the channels, but we have seen that the majority of online grocery shoppers still make most of their grocery purchases in traditional stores. However, as many as one-third indicate that 60% or more of their grocery purchases are now made online.”
