New findings reveal international appeal of online grocery shopping

October 2013

New findings reveal international appeal of online grocery shopping: According to new research carried out by Nielsen, consumers with internet access in developing countries are just as likely to try and beat food price inflation by searching for money-saving grocery deals as those in developed countries. The study of 29,000 shoppers across fifty eight countries showed that no matter where the consumer lives, behaviour showed many similarities. However, it did also highlight some striking differences.  

Half of the respondents from the USA said they would stock up on sales items, compared to one-third in the Asia Pacific region, as a way of beating inflation. In South Africa and South Korea, social media plays a bigger role with forty three per cent saying they would use social media to find online deals compared to only twenty per cent in the US and twenty four per cent in Canada.

The research also revealed that thirty two per cent of shoppers in developing countries would use the internet to beat food price inflation which is actually only a fraction below the 33% in developed economies. 

The majority (85%) of those asked stated that higher food prices would in fact force a change in their shopping habits; the category that would take the biggest hit would be sweets, snacks, ready meals and fizzy drinks. Most said they would continue to buy the same amount of basic foods.

The findings by Nielsen also went on to reveal big opportunities for supermarket chains with the expansion of own-brand labels, especially in India where forecasts show that supermarket sales will more than double in the next couple of years from $1.8bn to an expected $5bn. Furthermore, in the last year private label sales have grown by twenty two per cent.

The report also discovered that feeling cash-strapped wasn’t just linked to income with North America being the wealthiest region with almost half (46%) of those taking part in the study earning $50,000 or more – yet only nine per cent felt they could spend freely.