Accelerating in e-commerce: One in five shop exclusively online for food

According to a survey by global affiliate network Awin, 18% of UK consumers say they do all of their grocery shopping online and a further 33% of people said they regularly buy groceries online.

Silver surfers

The study polled 2,485 UK residents over the age of 18. All respondents were responsible for buying the groceries for their household. Participants were split evenly between three age groups: 18-34; 35-54 and 55-years plus.

Interestingly, Awin found older consumers are most likely to buy food exclusively online: 44% of this group were aged over 55.

When asked why they shopped online, the most popular responses were that it is ‘more convenient’ and ‘physically easier’. People also suggested it was easier to keep track of spending.

“The world is becoming increasingly reliant on e-commerce and consumers are adjusting to this,”​ commented Kevin Edwards, Global Client Strategy Director, at Awin.

Barriers to online conversion remain

But there is some way to go before the majority of UK shoppers buy all their food online. Twenty percent of respondents said they have never bought food online, while 29% said that they do so infrequently.

Shoppers who prefer to visit the supermarket said they did so because they like to see offers in store, with 31% citing this as a reason for never shopping online. Others reported that they are not at home enough to collect deliveries and said that they didn’t trust the freshness of products bought online.

Quizzed on their thoughts on the future of online shopping, respondents were asked if they thought supermarkets would end up selling exclusively online. Fourteen percent predicted this would become the case, whilst 86% disagreed.