Revealed: How we shop, when we shop, and why

If you’re doing your grocery shopping on a Sunday, Monday or Tuesday, then you are more likely to be planning a healthier meal, but you are still more likely to spend more later in the week.

These were just two of the observations heard at a conference in Croke Park yesterday which highlighted the changing face of Ireland’s grocery retail sector — and the ways in which we shop.

The Mining 4 Growth event featured a string of speakers from consumer knowledge research group Kantar World Panel.

Its research, including two by KWP’s Steven Kelly, entitled Mining for Growth and Promoting for Growth, shows that shoppers are spending more money on ‘for tonight’ and ‘specific journey’ trips, in a move away from larger, ‘main shopping’ trips.

Based on percentage of sales contribution, more than 43% of shopping trips are for ‘replenishment’, while more than 28% is for the ‘main shop’.

However, more than 19% is attributed towards a ‘specific journey’ shopping trip, an increase of almost 6% as percentage change in sales, and the 9% attributed to ‘for tonight’ has also grown by 3%.

Accordingly, this is leading to greater distribution of spend by basket size, while a more convenient approach to shopping is having an impact on when we choose to be in store.

Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays are increasingly important as shopping days, even though more money is still spent on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

In tandem, our mind-set changes as the week progresses, with healthier food options more likely to be bought at the start of the week, before we start on the ‘indulgence’ purchases towards and on the weekends.

According to Kantar World Panel: “We are noting an increased appetite for more premium products” — driven mainly by premium products, and linked to a positive trend in Premium Own Label switching, such as Supervalu’s Signature range and Tesco’s Finest.

Other findings include:

-14% of Irish shoppers buy groceries online;

-2.6m Irish shoppers will spend €5.7bn online in 2016;

-80% of Irish homes will have more than three smart devices next year;

-retail sales are growing at 20% a year and the average spend online is €55 per trip — double the average spend on a trip to the shops;

-48% of packs of ‘take home’ crisps are sold on promotion.

The latter point highlights the importance to retailers of promotions, with young families and those without children much more likely to buy more products ‘on promotion’ than older age groups. The group known as ‘deal buyers’ are more likely to hit the three larger retailers — Tesco, Dunnes and Supervalu — then Aldi and Lidl, although yesterday’s event heard that deals generate purely short-term uplifts in sales volumes.

The conference also heard that discounters, such as Lidl and Aldi, are climbing towards the performance levels of large retailers such as Tesco, Supervalu and Dunnes.

According to Kelly, Aldi and Lidl’s share of the Take Home Grocery Market is rising and now stands at more than 15%, with 2014 marking that first year in which Aldi has a bigger share than Lidl — 7.8% to 7.5%.

The move towards discounters appears set to stay. “A realistic forecast points to over 20% share by 2018,” according to Mr Kelly.