Friday 22nd December is likely to be the biggest shopping day of 2017 for grocers, according to Kantar Worldpanel.
“Christmas day falls on a Monday this year – last time that happened, in 2006, the Friday before was the most popular day for grocery shopping that year,” said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight.
“If we see a similar pattern in 2017, Friday 22 December is likely to win out as the grocers enjoy not only the biggest shopping day of 2017, but the most successful ever recorded. Over Friday 22 and Saturday 23 December, we expect shoppers to part with an eye-watering £1.5 billion as they fill their trollies ahead of Christmas day.”
December is also likely to be a record month for grocery e-commerce despite growth slowing to 2.8 per cent over the past three months, according to Kantar Worldpanel.
Internet specialist Ocado grew ahead of the online market during the latest quarter. Sales were up by 5.2 per cent as market share remained flat year on year at 1.3 per cent.
Total grocery spend for the period was £27 billion –3.1 per cent up on last year.
The big winners over the past three months have been the discounters. Aldi’s sales were up 15.1 per cent while Lidl’s were up 14.5 per cent.
Tesco was the strongest performer of the big four increasing sales by 2.5 per cent – nevertheless, market share fell slightly to 28.2 per cent.
Grocery market winners and losers
12 weeks to 03-12-2017
Change on
Till roll – consumer spend last year (%)
Aldi 15.1
Lidl 14.5
Ocado 5.2
Tesco 2.5
Sainsbury’s 2.0
Waitrose 1.6
Morrisons 1.4
Iceland 1.3
Asda 1.2
Other multiples 1.2
Symbols and independents -0.8
Co-op -1.5
Total grocers 3.1
Source: Kantar Worldpanel
