Is Shopping Online Cheaper?

There is no doubt that shopping online for groceries is convenient but is it cheaper?

16:39 16 May 2016

For many, going to supermarkets to buy groceries can be inconvenient and time-consuming. This is one of the reasons why 48per cent of consumers now order straight from their sofa and just wait for their groceries to arrive right on their doorsteps.

 

Convenience isn’t the only benefit that consumers can enjoy by doing their grocery online. They can also save money on petrol and take advantage of online-only promotions that are now being offered by biggest supermarkets in the country to further promote online shopping, which was a £2.3 billion industry in 2015.

 

Some of the incentives that consumers can take advantage of are Tesco’s free one-month delivery pass, £7.50 cash back offer by Quido for the first order, £20 off orders over £60 at Sainsbury’s and £15.75 cash back at Asda, among others.

 

However, Nick Carroll, retail analyst at Mintel, said that not everybody is ready to embrace the trend. He said: "Not all consumers are ditching the trip to the shops however, with as many as one quarter (24%) of Brits having never bought groceries online and having no interest in doing so, rising to 38% of over 55s.

 

"All of the major players now offer some form of freshness guarantee but this is still not a substitute for picking your own."

 

"Additionally, the discounters have obviously been a disrupting force in the grocery sector for a number of years, and it seems that online grocery retailers are not immune to the impact discounters are having on the market.”