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Morrisons launches home delivery subscription boxes
Source: Mintel 25-09-2020

UK 25-09-2020

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Morrisons has launched a subscription service for its home delivery food boxes. The scheme will allow customers to sign up for weekly, fortnightly or monthly grocery deliveries. The subscription service will have multiple options for different customers including a “Feed a Family Recipe Box” designed to last five days for a family of four.

The supermarket said that it had seen a 56% increase in demand for food boxes over the last week as COVID-19 cases began to rise and the government announced new measures to halt the spread. Director of food to order Aidan Buckley said that Morrisons was “making the service simpler and even better value”.

Mintel comment:

“Subscription boxes such as the ones launched by the likes of Morrisons have traditionally been a smaller part of the online grocery market. Mintel’s Online Grocery Retailing – UK, March 2020 Report shows that 5% of online grocery shoppers used such a service in 2019.
However they had been growing quickly and COVID-19 has only accelerated this. HelloFresh, arguably the most recognisable name in the space, has raised its sales guidance three times since the outbreak began and now expects sales to be up 75-95% in 2020. With more in-home cooking such boxes provide a convenient way for consumers to keep meal selection varied, whilst limiting the need for cooking skills and pre-planning.
We know online demand has been heightened by COVID-19, and the grocers have had to significantly invest to meet this demand. With cases rising and the colder weather coming in, which traditionally drives greater online grocery use, logistic networks will only be further stretched.
Food boxes can exist outside of this, as they are pre-packaged and involve a far less strenuous picking process than a full basket grocery order. So from both a demand and operational point of view such a move is a logical and smart one from Morrisons.”