Unfortunately for European retailers, new long-term revenue streams are almost as rare as money-growing trees. There is, however, one shining light in what is otherwise regarded as a depressed market and that is the thriving online grocery shopping sector.
Online grocery sales have become big business in the last few years and are set to get much bigger. In terms of market acceptance, the United Kingdom has been one of the quickest out of the blocks with online sales representing 3.4 percent of its overall grocery market. While that may not seem a huge figure, international food and grocery analysts IGD has forecast it will grow significantly over the next five years.
IGD anticipates the sector will be worth GBP 11.1 billion (EUR 13 billion/USD 17.5 billion) by 2017, or almost double its current value of GBP 5.6 billion (USD 8.8 billion/EUR 6.5 billion).
To give a further taste of e-shopping’s upward trajectory, U.K. retailer Sainsbury's last year reported its online grocery orders were exceeding 165,000 a week, and that the annualized turnover for Sainsbury.co.uk was around GBP 750 million (USD 1.2 billion/EUR 876.7 million), a 20 percent year-on-year increase.
Click here to read the full story that ran in the March issue of SeaFood Business >
