As lockdown restrictions begin to ease, data from Edge by Ascential shows that grocery retailers are starting to see more stable demand spread out throughout the week, helping them to better manage their online stock levels.

Average out-of-stock levels across the major UK online grocers ended the week at 14.9%, compared with 17.2% a week ago. This still compares to a UK average before the pandemic of 1.3%.

Coronavirus average out of stocks

During the week to May 11, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose all had increased availability, with Sainsbury’s having the greatest increase of in-stock products (up 2.1%).

This was due to increases in availability for key categories including soap (up 19%), kitchen towel (up 20.7%) and toilet paper (16.4%).

Morrisons saw out-of-stocks in key categories dip over the weekend of May 3, which then reversed two days later. However, overall its current level of out-of-stock products is now at the lowest level for eight weeks. 

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By category, tinned meat is the product that has flown back on to shelves the fastest, taking it out of the top five most unavailable categories for the first time since the pandemic began.

The biggest availability challenges over the past week were seen in increased demand for frozen pastry and dough, as well as tinned pasta and rice.

Coronavirus top 20 categories

Promotions remain at a low level among retailers in light of the slow return to normal. We are unlikely to see multi-buy promotional activity for some time, although price promotions at Sainsbury’s last week returned to just 4% lower than its January average.

Ocado stated during the week that “more normal” shopping habits have returned, which must be a relief for the retailer following the spikes in demand it saw in the early weeks of lockdown.