Recent figures suggest a year-on-year increase in the number of people who do their main food shopping online, up to 11% in 2015 from only 6% in 2011*. An online voucher code company investigated further and found only 20% of UK shoppers prefer online grocery shopping services, with Asda being the most frequently used retailer.
Investigating opinions on food delivery services, My Voucher Codes surveyed 2,150 UK adults.They first asked them: “Do you prefer to do your grocery shopping online or in store?” A massive 78% stated they preferred to do their grocery shopping instore, whilst only 20% stated online and 2% said they actually liked to use both. They then asked the participants who shop online: “What food delivery services do you currently use?” The results below show which services are the most popular:
- Asda – 30%
- Amazon – 25%
- Sainsbury’s – 22%
- Morrisons – 13%
- Tesco – 9%
- Waitrose – 8%
- Ocado – 7%
- Iceland – 2%
For food delivery services in the UK, supermarket Asda came out as the most frequently used, however online retailer Amazon, came in close second. The one stop shop which has dominated in retail in the UK for the last 10 years, also sells grocery items in the UK. While fresh food services from them are available in the US, Amazon did announce that the UK and Germany would be next for this service. It was also recently announced that Google will be launching fresh grocery deliveries to parts of San Francisco and Los Angeles as part of Google Express, which partners with retailers in some U.S. cities to deliver goods to consumers within hours of an order.
With the rise of Amazon and even other smaller delivery services such as Riverford, Abel & Cole and Hello Fresh, My Voucher Codes investigated further and asked respondents: “Google are launching a fresh grocery delivery service in the US, if they brought it to the UK would you use it?” They found 36% would, whilst 16% wouldn’t, however 45% were not sure, stating it would depend on cost and product range.
Mark Pearson, founder of MyVoucherCodes, spoke about the study:
“Our research shows shopping in store is still preferable for many people in the UK, however it seems that shopping online for your groceries is growing, although maybe not as quickly as other sectors. It also shows, despite some retailers not providing the best customer experience, people will still use their services.”
He added:
“I am not surprised to see Amazon being popular for grocery delivery.Although they don’t currently stock fresh produce they offer a wide selection of other home grocery products, some of which you can’t get in some supermarkets. So it will be interesting to see how things will change in the future, especially with the rise of food boxes and subscription boxes.”