The return of lockdown measures in France led to a 10.4% increase in household spending in the period from 5 October to 1 November, according to the latest market share data from Kantar.
France re-imposed lockdown measures in Week 44 (commencing 26 October), which led French shoppers to spend more at the checkout (+11%) during the P11 period, while the number of transactions fell by 1%.
In addition, online grocery sales continued to grow, by 2.2 percentage points, meaning e-commerce now accounts for 8.7% of the market.
Notably, some 6.9 million households (around 24% of the population) have devoted at least a third of their grocery budget to online channels over the past 12 weeks, Kantar said.
Market Leaders
In terms of the best-performing grocers, E.Leclerc maintained its position as market leader with a share gain of 0.7 percentage points, putting it on 21.8% share.
This was largely driven by increased internet purchases, with E.Leclerc winning an additional 200,000 shoppers in the P11 period, while customer loyalty improving by 0.7 percentage points.
Elsewhere, Lidl grew its market share by 0.6 percentage points to 6.8%, with the discounter benefiting from increased media communication (+4%), particularly in TV, and an improved promotion perception among shoppers. Lidl has increased its shopper count by 765,000, according to Kantar.
Le Groupement Les Mousquetaires saw its market share rise 0.6 percentage points, to 16.3%, led by its Intermarché brand, which was up 0.5 points, and Netto, which rose 0.1 points.
In addition, Groupement U gained 0.1 percentage points, to put it on 11% market share.
Hypermarket Challenges
Hypermarket operators largely found the going somewhat tough in the period – Carrefour's hypermarket operation saw a 0.4 percentage point decline, while Géant was down 0.3 points.
Commenting, retail analyst Olivier Dauvers said, "Unfortunately, this is nothing new, and it could get even worse over the next few periods. [...] You would have to really love your hypermarket to convince yourself to be interested in a trip there, which is in principle more restrictive than for a supermarket."
© 2020 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
