Online shoppers are developing more of a taste for fresh foods, with fruit and veg emerging as key growth drivers in online grocery retail.
Seven of the 10 fastest-growing online categories in 2010 were accounted for by fresh foods, according to latest Kantar Worldpanel data, fruit and veg making up two of the top three.
Vegetables reported the single biggest growth in spend, leaping £35.8m in the year to 26 December, while fruit showed the third-largest online growth, jumping £26.3m, only marginally less than wine, which was up £28.2m.
Online sales of fresh fruit and veg are now worth £359.4m, up 21.3% on last year [Kantar, 52w/e 20 Feb 2011] and the category's online growth is outperforming its wider growth in grocery spend. Fruit and veg were ranked only fifth and sixth respectively as far as their total grocery growth was concerned, with products such as wine, spirits, ready meals and chocolate dominating growth.
Fruit and veg are succeeding online even though they are arguably some of the more difficult to sell products in such an environment as shoppers cannot touch or inspect individual pieces of produce.
The fact they are doing so well may seem counterintuitive, said Kantar's Edward Garner, but could be explained by the fact that online shoppers were more likely to be from higher income groups. "Online shopping is biased towards cash-rich and time-poor people," he said. "Put simply, internet shopping and fruit and veg are disproportionately found together in higher-income households."
Supermarkets have also worked hard to make sure their online shopping experience can compete with that of shopping in store. To tap into growing demand for locally sourced fresh foods, Tesco, for example, has launched a microsite that allows customers to buy local produce.
Other fresh foods that made it into the online grocery top 10 included cheese (+£19m), fresh poultry, (+£16.8m) milk (+£13m) and yoghurt (+£12.4m).
Seven of the 10 fastest-growing online categories in 2010 were accounted for by fresh foods, according to latest Kantar Worldpanel data, fruit and veg making up two of the top three.
Vegetables reported the single biggest growth in spend, leaping £35.8m in the year to 26 December, while fruit showed the third-largest online growth, jumping £26.3m, only marginally less than wine, which was up £28.2m.
Online sales of fresh fruit and veg are now worth £359.4m, up 21.3% on last year [Kantar, 52w/e 20 Feb 2011] and the category's online growth is outperforming its wider growth in grocery spend. Fruit and veg were ranked only fifth and sixth respectively as far as their total grocery growth was concerned, with products such as wine, spirits, ready meals and chocolate dominating growth.
Fruit and veg are succeeding online even though they are arguably some of the more difficult to sell products in such an environment as shoppers cannot touch or inspect individual pieces of produce.
The fact they are doing so well may seem counterintuitive, said Kantar's Edward Garner, but could be explained by the fact that online shoppers were more likely to be from higher income groups. "Online shopping is biased towards cash-rich and time-poor people," he said. "Put simply, internet shopping and fruit and veg are disproportionately found together in higher-income households."
Supermarkets have also worked hard to make sure their online shopping experience can compete with that of shopping in store. To tap into growing demand for locally sourced fresh foods, Tesco, for example, has launched a microsite that allows customers to buy local produce.
Other fresh foods that made it into the online grocery top 10 included cheese (+£19m), fresh poultry, (+£16.8m) milk (+£13m) and yoghurt (+£12.4m).
No comments yet