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“Despite the hype and attention given to online and its ability to change the way people shop, the reality seems rather different,” says Nielsen’s analytics business partner Aylin Ceylan.

“Although online spend increased by around £300m last year, a 0.1% rise in market share is a rather pedestrian rate.”

“Many will be surprised it’s not faster but online shopping in grocery, unlike many other sectors, is much more a complementary option to stores not an ‘instead of’ option,” she added.

Ceylan pointed the fact that tackling overall popularity of online shopping with UK consumers will require different tactics altogether, considering neither basket size nor popularity which seems to be an issue for the online grocery sector.

“Two-thirds of people who buy groceries do so online and the average online basket is around four times bigger than an in-store one,” Ceylan told press, adding that Nielsen believe the issue is a “frequency one”.

On average people buy

A new data from Mysupermarket’s monthly grocery sales tracker, there is an increase of 5% to £86.77 in March of the most popular 35 items, way above the ONS’s 2.3% general inflation figure for the month.

This was up from the average 3% year-on-year increase and was driven up by items like mushrooms and kitchen towels, rising 42% and 27% respectively.

An overall increase in price of 19 items seen between February and March, nearly double the 10 items that fell. A further 6 items stayed the same price over the period.

“Although March’s basket only cost 1% more than February’s, it is over £4 more expensive than the same basket of goods this time last year,” MySupermarket chief executive Gilad Simhony said.

“We’re seeing retailers respond to rising costs of manufacturing by absorbing the increased cost to keep prices lower for shoppers in some instances. However, the recently introduced sugar tax may push prices up for categories such as squash drink, cola and f

According to GfK, there was a raise of 4 points in consumer confidence from a four year low in December to - 9 in January. Five measures that have been used to calculate consumer confidence rose, which included a marked rise in likelihood to buy big ticket items like furniture, which was up from 1 to 5 points.
A similarly positive Outlook for consumer’s personal finances in the next 12 months saw a raise which was up from 2 in December to 6.
The general economy views over the next year also rose by 4 points to - 24, though effects from yesterdays leaked Brexit report. The report states that the economy is set to shrink 5% even with trade deals in place are not yet visible.
According to GfK’s head of market dynamics Joe Staton it was a “pleasantly surprised” by the figures, but warned that overall confidence is still nearly twice as low as December 2016.
“In the absence of good news about rising wages and declining inflationary pressures, this off-

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3.

Some of the UK’s largest retailers with their experiences confirm a big swing to online with a lower footfall on the high street translating into our drivers pounding the pavements and delivering more to home addresses than ever before.
December volumes were up by 13% when compared with 2016. As a surprise, of course was that consumers felt less pressure to grab a bargain in the Cyber weekend. They preferred to make the most of the longer sales period.
Mobile Shopping
It was fascinating to see the analysis on Retail Week’s website from PCA, predict pointing out consumers are empowered by mobile devices. They are more likely to spend when and where they want to, and rather than embarking on a shopping frenzy on a specific day.
Data from IT department confirms the change in consumer’s behavour. The shift from high street to online is matched by a marked move from desktop to mobile. In addition, more interactions coming from

According to CBI’s Distributive Trades Survey 39% respondents reported that sales volumes were up on the same time last year. This compares to 13% said they were down, giving a balance of 29%.

A survey among 128 respondents found that the balance of retailers reporting a rise in average selling prices in the year to November was +75 – the strongest growth in average selling prices in 26 years.

This is welcome relief news to beleaguered retailers in the run-up to Christmas.

A fastest rate in decline has been recorded in the last month’s survey for the industry since March 2009, when the UK was in recession.

Many of the retailers have been hit by the slowdown in consumer spending. As the inflation is rising than the wages, consumers are beginning to feel the pinch and cut back their household budget.

The closing date for the survey was on 14th November, it was well before the beginning of the crucial Black Friday week which expected to push sales even highe