Since the coronavirus lockdown, the number of people
purchasing groceries online has doubled. According to Waitrose, this shift in consumer behaviour is “irreversible”.
A report from the firm reveals that one in four UK clients
buy food and other essential products from the Web at least once a week and
more than 75% get regular household goods from supermarket websites. This is an increase of 61% since last year.
It advanced that this shift in customer habit is a result of the lockdown and
that the change is permanent. Indeed, 40% of Brits said that they would keep
shopping online even after the pandemic. These findings are based on Waitrose’s
own digital sales throughout the previous year and on a pool of 2000 adults who
purchase at different other retailers.
Consumers have started using e-commerce facilities
since these served as ways to minimise the transmission of the virus. However,
even before the pandemic, a lot of firms were predicting that more people are
going to shop online. Nonetheless, as Waitrose
executive director James Bailey advances, “what would have previously been a
gradual upward climb in demand has, with the outbreak of Covid-19, turned into
a trajectory more reminiscent of scaling Everest”. Thus, the supermarket
company is investing into its online division.
Waitrose predicts a permanent shift
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