Online supermarket sales in Italy are set to beat the record €1.8 billion recorded last year, new data from NielsenIQ has revealed.
In the period January-September 2022, the online grocery sector in Italy was worth €1.4 billion, of which €185 million was recorded in September alone, according to NielsenIQ.
During the period from January to September, the sector reported turnover growth of 9%, second only to the discount channel (10.4%).
E-commerce's share of the overall Italian grocery market stood at 2.3% as of September 2022.
Households Embracing Online
Currently, 10.8 million Italian households purchase grocery products online, representing 42% of households. For this group, e-commerce accounts for almost 10% of total grocery spending.
In the month of September, online FMCG purchases grew by 13.5%, driven by pet products and personal care products, while packaged food also performed well (15.2%). Beverage sales were down slightly, year on year (-1.2%), due to the return to out-of-home consumption by Italians.
Driving the development of e-commerce is the centre-south region of Italy, which is growing six times faster than northern Italy.
Digital FMCG Observatory
Elsewhere, the Digital FMCG Observatory by Netcomm in collaboration with NielsenIQ reveals that the number of online food shoppers in has increased by 2.4 million compared to pre-pandemic times.
It anticipates that sales in online supermarkets in Italy during 2022 will grow by 9% overall, compared to 23.5% growth in 2021.
Inflationary pressures are causing online prices to rise by an average of 5.8%, compared to an average increase of 1.6% in the FMCG sector.
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest Retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
