The Office of National Statistics has released their official retail results for July. The figures show that online spending for food has increased by 14% year on year. This significant increase means that online food sales amount to 5.3% of all of the UK consumer spending. This is good news for the online shopping services but also spells doom and gloom for the UK high street supermarkets.
Fastline International has responded to the report that has been released by the Office of National Statistics, with a warning of this negative impact on the high street supermarket store. When providing a response, David Jinks, the Head of Consumer Research for Fastline, has said the July represented a strong month for internet sales. In comparison to last year, July’s figures are up 15.1%. It so thought that internet purchases make up around 16% of all consumer spending, although the strong growth of the food market is notable.
All in all, July wasn’t seen as a bad month for traditional supermarket shopping, with overall food sales seeing an increase of 2% after having a rough couple of months this year. But in comparison to the 13.9% leap in online food sales, this increase seems insignificant.
In July, it was announced that Tesco was introducing one-hour food deliveries across the majority of the nation, and with the growth of online only food delivery services such as Deliveroo and Ocado, the appetite for online food sales is being fed. Tesco was the trailblazer of online food sales, son to be followed by more of the other traditional supermarket brands. Tesco launched their first online service in 1984, and even today, Tesco is second only to Amazon UK for online sales. However, for supermarkets to flourish and develop online, there could be a cost to the high street stores.
Online food orders offer convenience and efficiency with the new faster delivery services being developed. But the development of this service could lead to high street, or “bricks and mortar” supermarkets could in the end become as unnecessary and outdated as video rental stores in the wake of online streaming services.
