French market leader E. Leclerc saw orders through its Drive business rise by 33% in the first month of the year, with an additional 500,000 customers using the service, the latest market share data from Kantar has found.
Data for the P1 period, covering 28 December to 24 January, has found that E. Leclerc holds a 22.3% market share, an increase of 0.7 percentage points, with its Drive business alone accounting for 3.7% market share.
The period in question saw the introduction of curfews in France, which has had an impact on household consumption, Kantar said, with an 8.8% increase recorded in value sales.
Online sales grew by 2.2 percentage points, meaning that online now accounts for 9% of the overall market – according to Kantar, 25% of French households have spent a third of their budget through online channels over the past 12 weeks.
Best Of The Rest
Other retailers that performed well during the period included Le Groupement Les Mousquetaires, which grew its market share by 0.6 percentage points to 15.7%, thanks both to its Intermarché internet channel and a positive performance in its stores.
Elsewhere, Groupement U recorded the third highest increase in market share, to 11%, a rise of 0.4 percentage points.
Discounter Lidl also continues to gain pace, with a 0.1 percentage point ranking putting it on 6.7% market share, and an additional 400,000 shoppers choosing the discounter. According to Kantar, Lidl is now the second best-loved French retailer behind E. Leclerc, while it also ranks first in terms of price perceptions, and fourth in terms of promotions.
Carrefour dropped 0.2 percentage points, with 0.1 point lost in its supermarkets, and 0.1 point dropped in its proximity channel.
Commenting on the findings, retail analyst Olivier Dauvers noted that while Leclerc's performance was positive, it was largely led by its Drive operation, which has been the case in recent months.
"Over the last 12 months, Leclerc has lost 0.5pt in store PDM but gained 0.9pt in drive," he said.
© 2021 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.
