Supermarket consumers staying online
Online purchases remain the top choice for a large share of supermarket customers, even after the lifting of restrictions and the full opening up of the economy.
The digital channels of retailer chains do not appear to have been a temporary solution during the March-May lockdown, as even in June many consumers turned online for their supermarket shopping, according to the biannual survey of the Convert Group.
The report showed that despite the end of the lockdown, online supermarkets continue to enjoy rising popularity: Last month sales rose 170% from June 2019, which is almost six times as high a rate as the 29% recorded in January 2020.
Across the first half of the year online supermarket sales posted a 150% rise compared to January-June 2019, while the sum of electronic stores’ turnover in just six months this year was 21% higher than the turnover recorded in the entire 2019. The Convert Group report showed that the total value of online purchases in January-June, value-added tax included, reached 56.3 million euros, while in 2019 as a whole, online supermarkets had made sales of €46.6 million.
In total over the first half of 2020 the average online consumer’s basket rose on a yearly basis both in terms of items, with five more, and of value, worth an additional €9. During the months of the lockdown, in March and April, the average basket had 51 items – that was up by 10 items from the average basket in 2019 with 40 items of them concerning food.
The top preferences of online consumers were paper and cleaning products, which rose in March by 407% year-on-year. They were followed by cosmetics and personal care items, which rose 397% mainly because they incorporated disinfectants, by frozen food that grew 372%, packaged food (up 348%), fresh food (up 340%) and baked goods (up 299%).
The lockdown, combined with working from home for many professionals, boosted online orders mainly from laptops and desktops as a habit, so that even after the lifting of restrictions they accounted for 68.4% of all orders.
