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(Brisbane Times) U.K. grocers are building more advanced websites and smart-phone applications to tap shopper demand for home deliveries.
U.K. online grocery sales will almost double in the next five years as more shoppers use mobile phones and the internet to buy food, an industry group said.
Online purchases will surge to 11.2 billion pounds ($17.6 billion) in 2016 from 5.9 billion pounds this year, according to a survey by theInstitute of Grocery Distribution. That figure is equivalent to 6 percent of grocery sales in five years, from an estimated 3.8 percent at the end of this year, IGD said.
U.K. grocers are building more advanced websites and smart- phone applications to tap shopper demand for home deliveries. William Morrison Supermarkets Plc, set to become the last of the four main U.K. grocers to sell food online, hired former Apple Inc. executive Simon Thompson last month to oversee its online grocery plans for 2013.
Online food buying “is the fastest-growing grocery channel and one which will be used more widely in the future as shoppers become increasingly multichannel,” IGD Chief Executive Officer Joanne Denney-Finch said. IGD interviewed 170 food and grocery manufacturers in September for the survey.
More than four in 10 adults plan to shop online for groceries in the next five to 10 years, compared with 17 percent doing so now, the group said, citing a shopping survey done in August.
