Total Till sales at UK supermarkets grew (+5.4%) in the last four weeks ending 23rd March 2024, according to new data released today by NIQ. Whilst this is a slight increase compared to the growth (+5.3%) reported last month, the drop in food inflation (3.7%) compared to 15% 1 a year ago has encouraged shoppers to buy more. Shoppers also spent more (£20.10) in the last four weeks compared to £19.50 this time last year.
Visits to store increased (+1.1%) however, there was a slowdown in the growth of online (+3.1%) with online’ s share of FMCG spend dipping to +10.9% compared to 11% a year ago.
NIQ data also reveals that shoppers took advantage of Mother’s Day discounts to celebrate as the event saw supermarket sales increase (+11.9%) during the week ending 9th March. With this in mind, dining in was a popular option for many shoppers. There was an uplift in sales for produce (+8.5%) and meat, fish & poultry (+8.4%). During this period, the Sunday Roast also became a focal point for retailer promotions with 27% of own label meat, fish & poultry purchased on promotion during the month.
With lower food inflation, packaged grocery ( +3.5%), frozen (+3.1%), delicatessen (+3.0%), beers, wine and spirits (+2.7%), bakery (+2.4%) and dairy (+1.8%) all had below- inflation value growths. However, with shoppers still reigning in spend, they spent less on household (-0.5%) and pet & petcare (-3.7%) items over the four week period 2.
In terms of retailer performance over the last 12 weeks, Sainsbury’s (+7.9%) and Tesco (+6.3%) were the fastest growing supermarkets, with M&S (+11.2%) and Ocado (+13%) also growing market share. Morrisons also saw an increase (+4.7%) in sales with Asda seeing the slowest growth (+0.8%) in this time period.
Mike Watkins, NIQ’s UK head of retailer and business insight, said: “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.”
Watkins adds: “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.“
Table: 12-weekly % share of grocery market spend by retailer and value sales % change
