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Spending on Christmas food and drink is set to be worth £20bn this year, which represents growth of 1.2% compared to last year when £19.7bn was spent.
Here, IGD chief executive Joanne Denney-Finch comments on the shopping trends and developments we’re likely to see over the festive period.
“Even at Christmas, shoppers are still looking for ways to help manage their finances. As we’ve seen over the rest of this year, the big weekly shop is in decline – and this is no different at Christmas,” said Joanne Denney-Finch.
“Only three out of ten (27%) shoppers are planning to do a ‘big Christmas shop’, as most people are intending to spread their shopping across a number of grocery formats and trips, with just over half (52%) of them preferring to use a number of different stores and many of them doing so to secure the best prices. They are prepared to put the effort in to get the best products from a diverse range of stores, which is why a quarter (25%) of shoppers tell us they are going to ‘cherry pick’.
“We’re expecting food discounters to be the fastest growing part of the UK grocery market this Christmas and their share of the market to be worth around £1.5bn. Seven out of ten (67%) shoppers tell us they’re going to use them, and 6% of these people say they don’t normally shop there but will try them this festive period. Some of the interesting reasons beyond cost that shoppers tell us they’re going to use discounters at Christmas include a quarter (26%) saying they’d like to try new and different products, while nearly one in ten (8%) say they would like to buy something that was recommended to them.
“However, the majority of shoppers (88%) tell us they will be using supermarkets to buy their Christmas food and groceries.
“The online grocery channel is also set to benefit. We’re forecasting it will be worth just over £1bn in sales, making it the second fastest growing grocery format this Christmas.
“Half of shoppers (46%) are planning to buy some of their festive food and groceries online. This is being helped with more click and collect options available this year, including transport hubs, and more people paying for online subscription delivery passes.
“With three out of ten (28%) shoppers saying they’ve only recently started buying their Christmas food and groceries, and a fifth saying they’re going to leave it to the week before Christmas – and even 7% telling us they’re leaving it to the last minute (22nd to 24th), there’s still plenty of opportunity for all different types of food retailing to influence shoppers in the lead-up to the big day.”
Joanne Denney-Finch is chief executive of IGD. This is a personal blog and the views expressed are her own.
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024