The UK online food & grocery retail market is now forecast to grow 25.5% in 2020, as major supermarkets such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose expand fulfilment capacity to meet the raised demand from housebound consumers, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Following the latest publication of GlobalData UK retail market forecasts, Thomas Brereton, Retail Analyst at GlobalData, offers his view:

“Since the surge in demand in mid-March – with 19.0% of the population spending more on online groceries than usual* – the UK’s largest supermarkets have quickly escalated capacity to fulfil unprecedented online demand, with Sainsbury’s increasing slots by 50% and Tesco reaching the milestone of a million deliveries in a week.”

“As a result, the online grocery market is now forecast to grow 25.5% in 2020 – significantly ahead of the 8.5% previously anticipated. On top of the initial increase in volume demand (c.30% in April), a continued reluctance to venture to stores for the rest of the year will bolster online market growth over a longer period than instore.”

*Data taken from GlobalData’s survey of 2,000 nationally representative UK respondents conducted in early April 2020.