Online grocery market to double by 2017

New research by IGD shows that shopping online for food will increase rapidly over the next five years from the £5.6bn it is valued at today.

This represents a compound annual growth rate of 14.6% between 2012 and 2017.

IGD Shoppervista research shows 44% of shoppers said they expect to use the internet to buy their groceries in the next five to ten years and 58% said technology helped to save money.

The study showed 46% of online shoppers would be encouraged to buy more of their groceries online if personalised promotions were emailed to them.

Tesco is currently the UK’s largest online grocer with Sainsbury’s, Asda and Waitrose all enjoying strong growth. Online grocery specialist Ocado is set to open its second customer fulfillment centre in Warwickshire next year, vastly increasing its capacity.

IGD chief executive Joanne Denney-Finch said online grocery shopping is “evolving at a blistering pace”.

She said: “Although online only currently represents 3.4% of the overall UK grocery market, it is the fastest growing sector – set to grow by a phenomenal 98% over the next five years.

“Increasing smartphone and tablet use together with new 4G mobile technology, should boost online grocery shopping and allow shoppers to use all services retailers provide from in-store navigation to using QR codes to access recipe ideas.”