Fuel shortages across the UK saw shoppers order food online as the ongoing supply chain pressures dragged consumer Christmas spending forward.

The latest grocery market share data for the 12 weeks to October 3, 2021, found that queues outside petrol stations up and down the UK provided a boost to grocery ecommerce, as shoppers stayed off the roads and had groceries delivered to their doors. 

Online sales in the period jumped to 12.4%, up from 12.2% in September, after months of sustained decline. 

While online sales were up for the period, overall grocery sales continued to decline, inching down 1.2% for the period. However, Kantar figures showed take-home grocery spend was still 8.1% higher than two-year, pre-Covid spending.  

Food inflation also rose during the period by 1.7% in the last month like for like compared with last year.

“In real-world terms, the average household had to spend an extra £5.94 on groceries last month than they did at the same time last year”, Fraser McKevitt, head of Kantar insights, said. “The typical household spends £4,726 per year in the supermarkets, so any future price rises will quickly add up. Shoppers will look to manage their spend by carefully selecting the products and retailers that offer them the best value.”

Concerns around the ongoing HGV driver shortage and global issues around increased shipping costs have prompted many customers to begin their Christmas shopping early this year. 

McKevitt said: “A minority of very prepared shoppers also took the chance to get ahead on their festive spending as 449,000 eager consumers bought their Christmas pudding in September with sales 76% higher than in the same month last year. Sales of toys are also up by 5% on last year while gift wrapping products grew by 10%.”

 

Tesco on top

After delivering a positive set of results last week, Tesco continued to grow ahead of the grocery market during the period, with sales up 1.2%. It also increased its market share 0.6% to 27.5%, the highest it has been since February 2019. 

Discounter Lidl was the only other grocer to deliver sales growth in the period, up 0.4% bringing its market share to 6.2%. 

Market share at both Sainsbury’s and Asda remained flat at 14.9% and 14.4% respectively. While Morrisons’ ownership battle was all but sorted during the period, its market share dipped from 10.1% to 9.8%. 

In a sign that overall grocery consumer trends are continuing to normalise, Ocado sales shrunk 5.9% during the period. C-store giant Co-op also saw market share and sales continue to decline as people returned to offices and moved away from the local shopping trend that dominated lockdowns.