Internet grocery sales are set to double over the next five years and one in ten shoppers will no longer visit a bricks and mortar supermarket, according to research from the IGD. The consultancy predicts that sales will hit£5bn, although this will still be less than 8 per cent of the£156bn UK market. Currently the largest online grocer is Tesco, which sells£1.23bn online: about three and a half times the value of sales achieved five years ago.
Major supermarket operators commented that the IGD figure was likely to be exceeded and that sales are growing by around 30 per cent a year.