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Online grocery shopping has become increasingly popular among shoppers since the COVID-19 pandemic, which spurred consumers to purchase their supermarket goods through the internet when faced with lockdowns and stay-home advisories. In 2021, the online food and grocery sales in the United Kingdom amounted to about ** billion British pounds. That figure was forecast to increase to nearly ** billion by 2025.

Post-pandemic slowdown despite new shopping habits

While online grocery still is expected to generate billions in revenue, growth of the market is set to slow down significantly. As official regulation surrounding the pandemic has ended, the high demand for online grocery ordering has lowered in turn. However, many consumers in 2022, particularly those of higher ages, still cited that avoiding crowds and risk of infection at physical stores was a strong reason for ordering their groceries online. Another popular reason for online grocery shoppers was due to having no time to go to the store themselves.

Not the perfect alternative

While saving time and avoiding crowds are pros to buying groceries on the web, there are also inevitable cons with this method of grocery shopping. A 2022 survey revealed that too many substituted items, not being able to find suitable delivery times, and un-fresh groceries were the most common negative aspects to online grocery shopping in the UK. These factors may be part of why nearly ** percent of shoppers bought their groceries primarily in-stores, and only partially online.