Data: Grocery sales slip as customers enjoy lifting restrictions

For the 12 weeks to August 8, 2021, grocery sales fell 4% year on year as coronavirus restrictions in the UK were lifted, according to the latest Kantar grocery market share data.

However, while the year-on-year comparisons remained tough for grocers, the picture over the four weeks to August 8 showed a much slower decline in sales of just 0.5%.

Compared with the same period in 2019, meanwhile, grocery sales were still up 9.9%, showing that the pandemic continues to have an impact on customer shopping habits. 

Kantar head of retail and consumer insight Fraser McKevitt said: “In the past month, grocery sales were just 0.5% lower than this time last year, the best four-week ending market performance since April.  

“In monetary terms, at least, we seem to be in a similar place to 12 months ago, but if we dig deeper into the data we can see that our shopping habits are actually very different. 

“With the end of social-distancing restrictions people have been happier to head into stores to make more regular, smaller shops. Consumers made an extra 108,000 shopping trips this month, while average basket sizes were 10% smaller.” 

As consumers continued their return to eating more meals out of the home, online grocery sales were also negatively impacted. Kantar found that 20% of the UK population bought groceries online during the period – the lowest levels seen since October 2020. 

The overall share of online grocery sales also fell, down to 13% for the period, down from a high of 15.4% in February. 

“Those who have come to love the convenience of an online shop are sticking with it, ordering regularly and spending on average more than two-thirds of their total grocery bill online”

Fraser McKevitt, Kantar

McKevitt said: “Take-up of online grocery shopping grew rapidly during the pandemic, but as lockdown restrictions have loosened a divide is beginning to emerge.

“Those who have come to love the convenience of an online shop are sticking with it, ordering regularly and spending on average more than two-thirds of their total grocery bill online. But the unconverted are starting to drop away, preferring to get back to stores instead.”

Kantar also noted that grocery prices continued to fall in the period and were down 0.8% in the 12 weeks to August 8. However, in the four weeks to the same date, price inflation grew 0.4%. 

Waitrose grows it alone

In terms of individual grocers, only Waitrose grew its grocery sales during the period, up 0.6% and attracting 360,000 new shoppers in the process. The grocery arm of John Lewis increased its market share by 0.2% to 4.9%.

All other UK grocers saw sales diminish in the period, although the overall makeup of the big four remained unchanged and all enjoyed significant sales growth on a two-year comparison with pre-pandemic levels. 

Tesco enjoyed its strongest period of market share growth since 2007, up 0.6% to 27.2%, bolstered by the strong performance of its premium Finest range. 

Sainsbury’s share also nudged up by 0.3 percentage points to give it 15.2% of the market.

Asda saw a 17% jump in the number of shopping trips compared with last year, now holding 14.2% of grocery sales. 

Meanwhile, Morrisons saw its share dip to 10%, with sales falling by 6.2% as measured against a strong performance last year.

Both Aldi and Lidl saw their respective market shares grow, while two of the strongest pandemic performers, Co-op and Iceland, saw sales and market share slip during the period. 

Ocado also recorded its first sales decline on record, down 0.7%.

McKevitt said: “Ocado’s growth is now comparing against the rapid expansion it enjoyed in 2020, so it’s not altogether surprising that we’re now seeing a small dip.

“It’s still a positive outlook for the online specialist, though. Ocado has retained 1.8% of total grocery sales, the same as last year, and sales are up by 44.4% compared with 2019, the fastest two-year growth in the market.”