Faced with cut-throat competition from discounters, should supermarkets still be focusing on building their online marketing programs? One analyst, David McCarthy at HSBC, says the answer is “no”. He believes customers, at least in the UK, want lower prices more than they want home delivery.
The internet is taking around 1% more market share in the UK, but Aldi and Lidl combined are winning share at twice this rate and do not have online operations. Aldi alone is growing its market share faster than the entire internet is winning it in grocery, he said.
According to another new research, online grocery retailing, however, has plenty of room to grow in The Netherlands: GfK reports that one of every ten consumers has purchased at least one grocery item over the internet in the past six months. Many of these online sales are going to parties other than the traditional supermarkets.
Personal care and cleaning products, pet food, alcoholic drinks, biscuits, sweets and chocolate are the most popular product groups purchased online. AH.nl and franchise alternative AH-afhaalpunt.nl together accounted for about one-third of all online purchases, followed by Wehkamp.nl and Kruidvat.nl.