The online grocery retailing market in Italy experienced dramatic growth in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Demand quickly overwhelmed the leading grocers’ online operations, leading consumers to turn to alternative providers, including online-only grocers, online-only generalists, such as Amazon, and express delivery service providers.
Online is still a relatively small part of the overall grocery market – less than 2% of sales – but our research shows that there is still considerable potential for growth, from existing users spending more and shopping more often online, lapsed users returning and new users being recruited.
The main barriers holding back further development of the market include high delivery charges and high minimum order thresholds. But the biggest objection is a preference on the part of Italians for choosing fresh products themselves and retailers will need to overcome this issue through advertising and social media activity to change perceptions as well as through careful recruitment of pickers.
Key issues covered in this Report
The impact of COVID-19 on the online grocery retailing sector
Current usage of online grocery shopping and how people receive their orders
Which companies people shop online for groceries with.
The strategies of the major grocery retailers relating to online
Opportunities for expansion of the market.
Areas covered in this Report
This report includes both market and consumer data around the retailing of grocery products online.
Our market size for online grocery includes:
Major grocers’ online sales of food and drink and other grocery products
Online-only grocers’ sales
Specialist food and drink retailers’ online sales
Online-based food box and recipe box delivery schemes.
It excludes:
Foodservice delivery (eg restaurant or fast food takeaways ordered online)
Home delivery of groceries not ordered online.
Consumer research
The reports in this series include extensive consumer research commissioned exclusively for Mintel. The research was carried out online using a sample of 1,000 internet users in Spain.
It is important to bear in mind that our data represents the views of internet-literate shoppers and is therefore a pointer to the way the market will develop.
For our consumer research this year we asked questions on the following topics:
Engagement in online grocery shopping
Delivery/collection options for online grocery orders
The retailers used for online grocery shopping
Reasons for not shopping online for groceries.
