ALEXANDRIA, Va.—With pandemic restrictions still in place in the fourth quarter across most European countries, and against the full lockdowns of 2020 when shoppers opted to visit larger stores less often and stocked up online, shopper spend across Europe fell -1.1% with sales in the European convenience channel down -2.3%, according to Mike Watkins, head of retailer and business insight UK, NielsenIQ.
“However, shoppers have now started to return to stores, and although visits were around 10% lower than two years ago and basket spends were down on the fourth quarter last year, shopper behavior is starting to normalize,” said Watkins.
Leading up to Christmas, online continued to gain spend from big supermarkets, but shoppers also shopped in convenience stores for last-minute essentials in the final two weeks.
Omnichannel purchasing, shopping around and entertaining at home were the big shopping trends over the festive period. In larger markets such as France (convenience sales: -0.2%) and Great Britain (convenience sales: -1.3%), where online has over 10% of all sales, convenience stores were a complementary shop to the big online shop. Shoppers were also willing to buy some extra Christmas indulgences and temporarily put aside their concerns about the rising cost of living as energy costs spiraled.
Looking ahead to 2022, online, discounter and convenience are the channels set for strongest growth.
“We can expect sales to improve in the convenience channel as a result of permanent home working, as well as the return of travel, leisure and some commuting. But despite this return to normality, rising prices are a top concern, so we expect shoppers to manage budgets by ‘shopping smart’ on each trip and to shop around more in the quest to make savings on their weekly food shop.,” said Watkins.
“And we may see them buying what they need, when they need it, wasting less fresh food and steering clear of unnecessary cupboard stocking. All of which would benefit convenience stores and give momentum to the ‘little and more often’ shopping trend as we hopefully leave the pandemic behind in 2022,” Watkins said.