UK shoppers spent £3.6 billion on groceries at convenience stores in the four weeks ended 13 August 2022.
According to new data by NielsenIQ, this accounted for 28.9% of FMCG channel sales within the period.
The data also revealed over the four-week period, total till grocery sales grew by 4.5%, however, convenience store sales growth experienced an uplift of 2.7% in volume sales, compared with supermarkets, which saw a 3.8% decline.
Some 21% of total sales within the convenience stores were on fresh foods where increased by 13%. Frozen food sales soared by 29%, and produce sales grew by 8%.
However, the boost to in-store visits came at the expense of online sales, which dropped by 8.7% and the online share of FMCG sales fell to 11.3%, down from 11.5% in July and 12.9% share a year ago.
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“It is inflation which is driving topline sales across the industry, but shoppers continue to be very cautious about how much they spend on groceries, resulting in a fall in volume sales at supermarkets,” NielsenIQ’s UK head of retailer and business insight, Mike Watkins, said.
“However, the hot weather over the last few weeks has helped volumes turn positive at convenience stores, with an increase in purchasing of drinks, frozen and fresh foods in particular.”
He added: “The market may have recovered from a low point in March, but we are now seeing the start of ‘peak inflation’ and we anticipate shoppers will need to reign in their spending again after the ‘back to school’ period in a few weeks’ time.
“As inflation continues to bite, retailers that focus on saving shoppers’ money will be the ones that maintain sales momentum and it will those who are most agile and are able to adapt to another change in shopper behaviour that will be able to weather the storm.
“The battle for loyalty is not going away especially in a time where basket spends are falling and shopper promiscuity is up.”
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