French grocery market leader E.Leclerc was the strongest performer in the most recent four-week period, seeing its share rise 1.1% to 22.6%, according to Kantar.
E.Leclerc saw a 22% increase in traffic to its e-commerce sites during the P7 period (June 15 to July 17), Kantar said, as well as benefiting from as larger basket sizes.
The retailer also increased its media investment by just under a third (+31%) in the period, to cement its leadership position.
Best Of The Rest
Another strong performer in P7 was Lidl, which saw its share rise 0.5% to 6.5%, mainly through increased customer loyalty, while average basket size also increased by €2.60 (to €24.10).
Lidl is also the leading TV advertiser in the French grocery market, which has reinforced its position.
Le Groupement Les Mousquetaires, which runs the Intermarché banner, saw its share rise 0.4% to 15.4%, which its positive momentum driven largely by its Drive channel, which has seen shopper numbers surge.
The group's proximity stores and Netto banner also grew by 0.1% share in the period.
Aldi saw its share rise by 0.2% to 2.4%, with the discounter seeing increased customer loyalty.
Aldi is also increasing its media presence, while its price positioning is resonating well with shoppers, Kantar said. Elsewhere, the Louis Delhaize Group gained 0.1% share to put it on 2.8%.
Hypermarkets found the going tougher in the period, with Carrefour's hypermarket division seeing a 0.4% decline, Auchan's hypers arm falling 0.3%, and Géant Casino also dropping 0.3%.
Shopper Spend
The P7 period marked the first full four weeks since lockdown measures were eased, which led to a marginal decline in shopper spend compared to previous quarters, Kantar said.
However, spend was still up 4.5% compared to the same period the previous year – while traffic to stores was down 8.5%, those going shopping spent on average €4.30 more per visit.
The online channel continued to gain traction, seeing a 1.9% increase in the period to now account for 8.1% of the total market.
Discounters were the other big winner, seeing their share rise 0.2% to 10.9% of the overall sector.
© 2020 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
