Shoppers paying by bank card made more frequent visits to convenience stores in the first quarter of 2023 versus the same period last year, while rapid delivery trips skydived -34% over the same period.
Convenience store shoppers paying by card increased their spend by 6% year on year between January and March, driven by an increase in the number of shopping trips, which were up 7% year on year, according to digital advertising platform Cardlytics’ The State of Spend report.
“While not reaching the levels of growth seen during the pandemic, data shows that convenience stores are seeing an uptick in sales following some stagnation in 2022,” says Nick Leyland, partnerships director at Cardlytics. “Year on year spend growth in 2022 was just 1%, compared with 6% this year.”
Consumers paying via bank cards spent on average of £10.79 per trip to convenience stores in 2023, down from a peak of £11.59 in 2021, according to the report, which is based on the spending habits of over 20 million UK bank cards between 1st January and 31st March, plus an Opinium survey of 2,000 shoppers taken in May.
Meanwhile, the research showed that rapid grocery delivery brands - once tipped as significant disruptors to the traditional supermarket model - had failed to make a dramatic dent in the post-pandemic world, with the number of trips in Q1 of 2023 falling by 34% YOY.
However, it was noted that average transaction values in this period were up 64% to £20.32, suggesting that consumers using rapid grocery services were buying more (or higher value) items. This helped to offset the fall in transactions to see total spend grow by 9% year on year.
By contrast, the report identified that supermarket bank card spend had seen almost flatline growth (+2%) as customers sought ways to offset price rises by cutting down on purchases or switching to cheaper products or stores. Nearly two thirds (63%) of consumers said they had bought more own-label products from supermarkets in the past year.
Shoppers have also been flocking to discounters, according to Cardlytics, which claimed that bank card spend in the channel was up 19% YOY in Q1.
Online-only grocers saw spend increase 7%, but the report claims that momentum has slowed compared to the exponential growth experienced in the first two years of the pandemic. However, spend is still up 118% from pre-pandemic levels, as many have stuck to online grocery shopping habits developed during Covid.
Cardlytics observed that the grocery sector has remained more resilient than others during times of budget cuts, as half of adults (50%) have not cut back at all on essential shops like groceries in the past year.
The report also revealed that, as well as trading stores or products, nearly three-fifths (56%) of consumers now enjoy being part of a supermarket loyalty scheme.
Nick Leyland, Partnerships Director at Cardlytics,said: “Grocery shopping is an essential for everyone – but it’s clear that consumers are getting savvier and with fierce competition, supermarkets must differentiate themselves from their rivals. This increased competition and hunt for value means that retailers need to find ways to reward loyalty and help people get great value from their shops.
“We know that loyalty schemes are becoming more and more popular with consumers, and they’re an easy win for grocery brands. They get to reward loyalty and encourage customers to keep coming back, and they can also benefit from gleaning a better understanding of the habits and profile of their shoppers.”
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