Ocado and M&S have been named the fastest-growing grocery retailers, growing 13% and 11.2% respectively over the last 12 weeks, according to new data from Nielsen IQ.
New figures from the NIQ Total Till showed that the grocers increased their market share, from 1.5% to 1.6% for Ocado and from 3.2% to 3.4% for M&S in the first quarter of the year.
Alongside Ocado and M&S, Tesco and Sainsbury’s also performed well as they upped their market share by 6.3% and 7.9% respectively.
However, Asda’s sales fell in the first 12 weeks of the year, with its share of the market decreasing to 11.7% compared to 12.3% in the same period last year.
Morrisons and the Co-op also saw their retail market share dip slightly, falling by one percentage point each to 13.8% and 4.0% respectively.
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The latest data follows Ocado last month being named the fastest-growing supermarket, as consumers continue to shop around for their weekly groceries.
NIQ UK head of retailer and business insight Mike Watkins: “As inflation slows, we have seen an improvement in grocery sales volumes during Q1. A driver of this was the further fall in food prices in March, together with intense competition amongst the supermarkets looking to drive footfall with promotional offers as seen on Mother’s Day and in the weeks leading up to Easter.
“However, overall consumer spend remains under pressure as many household bills continue to increase above CPI and this is reflected in the continued weak consumer confidence.”
“Encouraging more visits is likely to be the next battleground for retailers now that we have lower inflation. The wet and cold weather in the first quarter of the year may have deterred some store visits, but we saw that the early Easter offered some attractive seasonal promotions which encouraged shoppers to buy more. When drier, warmer spring weather eventually arrives this will continue to support volume growths across all channels.“
