The e-commerce food and grocery market continues to advance with spend up in February 2017, driven by Valentine’s Day-related purchases and a desire to save money through bulk buying and promotions. The number of consumers opting to stay in rather than venture out to the supermarket jumped by 6.3ppts to 15.9% in February as 20.8% spent more online in February than in an average month.
Average online spend increases have also been driven by inflation, with supplier price rises, caused by the devaluation of the pound and poor crop yields, being partly passed on to the shopper.
Ocado continues to move up the rankings for online spend as significant technological investment in its supply chain allowed the retailer to service 252,000 customers per week in Q1 2016/17.