How online grocers failed to topple bricks and mortar rivals post-pandemic, an interesting take on consumer shopping habits in The Times.
Isabella Fish’s article this weekend highlights the strength of the omnichannel model for UK grocers, reinforcing SUPR’s investment case for targeting these stores.
“Experts believe that multichannel retailers — those that sell both online and offline — will be the real winners over the coming years.”
Over the Christmas period, Britons made c.488 million trips to supermarkets, spending c.£13.7 billion according to Kantar. Online’s market share in grocery has fallen from a Covid peak of about 15% to around 11% now.
This shows levels remain greater than pre-pandemic, with online grocery permanently enlarged, so online shopping habits have changed for ever – but the pure play online operators lack the flexibility to adapt to shifts in shoppers’ behaviour.
The latest Retail Review report from Stifel Bank states that “with the majority of shoppers still preferring to primarily shop either in-store or both in-store and online, we view multi-channel retailers as best placed to succeed”.
Omnichannel grocery is at the core of SUPR’s strategy, we target high performing stores in strong catchment areas which offer consumers flexibility in how they shop.
