On the whole, the current status of convenience is mixed, according to new data from Lumina Intelligence. In its CTP report for Q2 2024, it revealed that penetration has grown +7.1% year-on-year, while frequency and trip spend has declined. The same period last year represented a weaker base, when lighter shoppers dropped out the market due to budgetary constraints leading to penetration decline.
Weather is also having an impact, as anyone who’s tried to take a staycation during the school holidays will attest. The spring of 2024 was wetter and colder than that of 2023, which has impacted soft drinks sales, leading them to lose share and for food to go’s share to contract.
Elsewhere, newsagent missions recovered from losing share in Q2 2023, driven by shoppers aged 65 and over purchasing fewer newspapers in convenience in favour of alternate channels, as well as digital news sources and home news delivery. This trend was short lived though, and has since normalised, leading newsagent missions to regain share.
There has also been a decrease in impulse purchases, the report reveals. Shoppers are less likely to purchase on impulse year-on-year across all channels, with the steepest declines in forecourts. This is impacted by the shifts in categories, where soft drinks – a typically high impulse category - has lost share due to poor weather and annualising on strong performance last year, it says.
On top of this, advances by the multiples have seen their in-roads further strengthened to the convenience sector. Tesco Express and Sainsbury’s Local are the top performers, gaining +1.5% and +1.1% respectively. Their growth is driven by continued success of loyalty card schemes, which enable them to deliver value – in fact, loyalty card promotions have gained +2.8% versus last 2024, the report reveals.
Speaking to Convenience Store, Lumina’s senior insight manager, Flora Zwolinski, thinks the channel might be settling down into a new phase. “The market is adjusting to a new normal, and we’re seeing settling consumer behaviour as a result,” she says. “The success of Tesco Express and Sainsbury’s Local highlights the importance of customer rewards in today’s competitive retail environment. Retailers that prioritise delivering value through reward programs are well-positioned to thrive.”
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