Figures published last week found that a quarter of consumers now buy food online at least once a week. The number of shoppers in the UK who do a weekly grocery shop online has doubled since the coronavirus lockdown. More than three quarters of households order at least some of their grocery shopping from supermarket websites, which is an increase of 61% on last year.

The report from Waitrose (based on online sales and a poll of 2,000 adults) pinpointed the coronavirus lockdown as the catalyst for the upturn but believes that habits have permanently altered, calling the trend ‘irreversible’.

Fear of catching coronavirus has driven demand from older and more vulnerable sections of the population. The report found that in the over 55 age group, those who buy groceries online grocery has increased from 8% last year to almost 25% this year.

James Bailey, executive director of Waitrose, said: “Even before the Covid-19 pandemic there were few retailers that wouldn’t have predicted the continued growth of e-commerce relative to physical shops. But what would have previously been a gradual upward climb in demand has, with the outbreak of Covid-19, turned into a trajectory more reminiscent of scaling Everest.

“One in four of us now do a grocery shop online at least once a week, double the amount in 2019. Because online shopping quickly becomes habitual these changes are irreversible.”

Keep it Cool wrote in June about changing food habits in lockdown and last month we highlighted the increase in demand for frozen foods. The unstoppable rise in online grocery shopping is yet another trend sparked by the coronavirus crisis.

Ocado, the online supermarket which has no physical stores, saw its market share hit an all time high in June. They saw sales grow by more that 42%, more than any of the main UK supermarkets.

Tesco, which hired more than 16,000 new delivery staff at the start of lockdown, last week announced that it would give permanent jobs to all those people due to increased and continuing demand.

Online grocery shopping began in the latter half of the 1990s. Amazon and eBay launched in 1995 and consumers embraced the concept of shopping online. Tesco and Sainsbury’s were the first UK supermarkets to launch an online service. Asda soon followed, but Morrisons was late to enter the online market, only launching a service in 2014 using technology developed by Ocado.

In the early days, online grocery shopping was a niche activity, but by 2016 weekly sales had reached £142 million. The introduction of new players, such as online-only grocers Ocado and AmazonFresh, has led to a change in the online grocery market share, with Tesco, Asda and Ocado now the leading online grocery retailers in terms of edible grocery sales. 

So what’s next for online groceries? Many predict new entrants to the market, with manufacturers expected to set up direct–to-consumer operations. Meal-kit provider with online subscriptions are all expected to do well. Improvements in technology will both make ordering online easier and more fun. A more personal shopping experience will emerge, with retailers able to suggest products we may like and provide recipes and smart shopping lists.

‘Click and collect’ from store will continue to grow, but we’ll also see a move towards ‘micro-fulfillment centres’. These small warehouses can offer automated online order fulfillment, fulfilling orders quicker and taking up less square footage than traditional store-based fulfillment. Ocado pioneered the robot-powered warehouse and their warehouses (or customer fulfilment centres) are now among the most sophisticated in the world.

At Keep it Cool, we welcome the increased demand for online shopping and are excited by the advances in technology which come with that. We look forward to supporting the food and supermarket industry going forward with our same day and emergency delivery service for temperature-controlled food products. If you want to know more or get a quote, call 01274 271451 or email info@keepitcool.co.uk. Our same day food transportation service is available nationwide across the UK.