Table of Contents
Executive summary
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- The market
- Market size
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- Figure 1: Italy: online grocery retailing market size, 2018-20
- COVID-induced pressure on household finances will increase focus on click & collect
- Ageing population places premium on UX and more frequent delivery options
- Home cooking growth, localism and sustainability set to influence market direction
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- Figure 2: Italy: consumer resolutions about food and drink once the COVID-19/coronavirus pandemic subsides, July 2020
- Companies and brands
- Leading players
- Competitive strategies
- The consumer
- Engagement in online grocery shopping
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- Figure 3: Italy: engagement in online grocery shopping, December 2020
- How they receive their online grocery orders
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- Figure 4: Italy: delivery/collection options for online grocery orders, December 2020
- Retailers shopped with
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- Figure 5: Italy: retailers used to shop for groceries online, December 2020
- Reasons for not shopping online for groceries
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- Figure 6: Italy: reasons for not shopping online for groceries, December 2020
Impact of COVID-19 on Online Grocery Retailing
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- Short, medium and long term impact on the sector
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- Figure 7: Short, medium and long term impact of COVID-19 on online grocery retailing, March 2021
- Opportunities and threats
- The pandemic presents new prospects in online grocery
- Delivery boxes: a new opportunity
- Online shopping could help cash-strapped shoppers control spending
- Grocery delivery services speed up
- High delivery charges pose a threat to online grocery
- Profitability concerns dampen optimism
- How COVID-19 will reshape the industry
- Food marketplaces widen offer
- Supporting the local community will gain further relevance
- Mobile apps facilitate home delivery for smaller players
- Discounters moving into online grocery
- The impact of COVID-19 on consumer behaviour across Europe
- Concerns around exposure to COVID-19 fall as vaccine roll-out begins
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- Figure 8: Europe: those extremely worried about the risk of being exposed to COVID-19, March 2020-February 2021*
- The financial impact of COVID-19
- Furlough and job losses
- Spending falls and consumers look to save where possible
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- Figure 9: Europe: financial impact of COVID-19, February 2021*
- Changes to shopping behaviour
- Non-essential spending reduced
- Online shopping receives major boost
- Click-and-collect finds new meaning amidst the pandemic
- Localism rises up the agenda
- Second wave leads to renewed stockpiling
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- Figure 10: Europe: changes to shopping behaviour since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, February 2021*
- Consumers prioritising healthy eating since the pandemic
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- Figure 11: Europe: changing priorities since the COVID-19 outbreak, February 2021*
- Spending intentions
- Food sector sees planned spending vary by country
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- Figure 12: Net balance* of expected spending on selected items in the next month, February 2021**
- British consumers planning to spend more on food in the next month
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- Figure 13: Europe: net balance* of expected spending on food excluding takeaways/home delivery in the next month, February 2021**
- How the crisis is affecting key consumer segments
- Women and older people most concerned about the pandemic
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- Figure 14: Europe: those extremely worried about the risk of being exposed to COVID-19, by gender and age, February 2021*
- Younger consumers embracing click-and-collect
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- Figure 15: Europe: consumers using click and collect more, by gender and age, February 2021*
- Online shopping boom is relatively uniform
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- Figure 16: Europe: consumers shopping more online, by gender and age, February 2021*
- Younger and middle-aged consumers more likely to be cutting back on non-essential spend
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- Figure 17: Europe: consumers cutting back on non-essential spending, by gender and age, February 2021*
- COVID-19: market context
- France
- Germany
- Italy
- Spain
- UK
Issues and insights
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- COVID-19 boosts online grocery, but specialists face growing competition online
- Where can online grocery retailers improve?
- How can retailers maximise the profitability of their online operations?
The market – Key takeaways
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- Online grocery market boosted by COVID-19 and lockdowns
- COVID-induced pressure on household finances will increase focus on click & collect
- Ageing population places premium on UX and more frequent delivery options
- A shift towards m-commerce
- Localism and sustainability rise up the agenda
- Pandemic sparked home cooking boom but some consumers still need support
- Snacking growth offers potential for healthy alternatives and snacking kits
Market drivers
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- Economic overview
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- Figure 18: Italy: changes to consumers’ financial situation as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, selected dates, 2020/21
- Population size and structure
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- Figure 19: Italy: population size and age structure, 2019-30
- Inflation
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- Figure 20: Italy: inflation, year-on-year change in food and non-alcoholic beverage and alcoholic beverages and tobacco prices, January 2019-December 2020
- Device ownership and online participation
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- Figure 21: Italy: device ownership, July 2020
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- Figure 22: Italy: devices used to access the internet in the past three months, July 2020
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- Figure 23: Italy: devices used to shop online in the past three months, July 2020
- Shifts in consumer spending, lifestyles and behaviour since COVID-19
- Spike in people spending more on food drops away again as restrictions are lifted
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- Figure 24: Italy: trend in spending on food (excluding takeaways/home delivery) compared to before the COVID-19 outbreak, December 2020 and February 2021
- A permanent shift towards buying online?
- A temporary shift or permanent shift in working patterns?
- A growing localism movement
- Sustainability and traceability rises up the agenda
- Italians rediscover their love of cooking during lockdowns
- A disconnect between desire and ability to cook?
- Snacking growth offers potential for healthy alternatives and snacking kits
- A shift upmarket?
Market size
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- Figure 25: Italy: online grocery retailing market size, 2018-20
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Companies and brands – Key takeaways
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- Retailers scramble as COVID demand overwhelms them
- Structure of many leading grocers holds back online development
- Many operators still impose minimum order values and high delivery charges
- Express delivery providers have boosted home delivery capacity
- Everli outperforms the market, quadruples turnover
- Amazon provides biggest threat to specialists
Leading retailers and competitive strategies
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- Store-based grocers
- Esselunga
- Conad
- Coop
- Carrefour
- Other store-based grocery retailers
- Online-only companies
- Online-only grocery specialists
- Online-only grocery generalists
- Online-only grocery delivery providers
- Google search interest
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- Figure 26: Italy: trends in searches for online shopping services of leading grocery retailers, 1 January 2020-15 March 2021
The consumer – Key takeaways
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- Strong untapped potential in the market, while lapsed users also offer opportunity
- Less populated areas could represent an opportunity for Amazon or regional/local retailers
- Recipe box ripe for exploration by major retailers
- Amazon presents clear threat to major store-based retailers
- Preference for choosing fresh products oneself is an obstacle to online shopping
- Desire to support physical stores could be turned into a positive by local retailers
- Issue of high charges and minimum spends can be overcome by delivery pass
- Retailers need to tackle issue of online shoppers not being able to choose products themselves
Engagement in online grocery shopping
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- Figure 27: Italy: engagement in online grocery shopping, December 2020
- Demographics of online grocery shoppers
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- Figure 28: Italy: engagement in online grocery shopping, by age, December 2020
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- Figure 29: Italy: engagement in online grocery shopping, by broad region, December 2020
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- Figure 30: Italy: engagement in online grocery shopping, by presence of parents’ children in the household, December 2020
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How they receive their online grocery orders
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- Figure 31: Italy: delivery/collection options for online grocery orders, December 2020
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- Figure 32: Italy: delivery/collection options for online grocery orders, by gender, December 2020
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- Figure 33: Italy: delivery/collection options for online grocery orders, by presence of parents’ children in the household, December 2020
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Retailers shopped with
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- Figure 34: Italy: retailers used to shop for groceries online, December 2020
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- Figure 35: Italy: retailers used to shop for groceries online, by gender, December 2020
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- Figure 36: Italy: retailers used to shop for groceries online, by age, December 2020
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- Figure 37: Italy: retailers used to shop for groceries online, by net monthly household income, December 2020
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- Figure 38: Italy: retailers used to shop for groceries online, by retailers used to shop for groceries online, December 2020
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Reasons for not shopping online for groceries
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- Figure 39: Italy: reasons for not shopping online for groceries, December 2020
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- Figure 40: Italy: reasons for not shopping online for groceries, by age, December 2020
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- Figure 41: Italy reasons for not shopping online for groceries, by net monthly household income, December 2020
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- Figure 42: Italy reasons for not shopping online for groceries, by type of non-online grocery shopper, December 2020
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Appendix – Data sources and abbreviations
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- Abbreviations
- Data sources
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