Food buying by Finns is in transition. The growth of online shopping is accelerating even more.
More and more Finns use online food stores. Pete Anikari
More and more Finns use online food stores. Food online shopping in S group stores grew by 27 percent from last year, while in the previous two years the growth rate has been around 20 percent per year.
There has also been a significant change in the way online shopping is used. Home delivery is now a more popular delivery method than pickup. 54 percent of those using the online store order food delivered to their home.
– Up until now, the collection has been the larger of the two. The purchases were ordered for pick-up and when the order was picked up, people still went to the brick-and-mortar to buy fresh products. Perhaps the background was doubt about the functionality of the online store and the professionalism of the collectors. Now it has folded, thinks the product lead of S group’s online store Emilia Ala-Kurikka.
According to Ala-Kurika, home delivery has always been more popular in other parts of Europe, only France and Finland have been exceptions to this.
Robot transport affects growth
Express deliveries increase the popularity of home delivery. Robot transport accounts for 20 percent of all orders.
The growth of online shopping has been seen in all age groups. For people under 24 years of age, the use of food online shopping has increased by up to 58 percent since last year. For young adults, the increase has been 51 percent.
The purchases of adult singles have increased by 41 percent and those over 75 by 22 percent.
Ala-Kurikka says that the online store used to be used on a computer, where the order was filled out on a large screen. Now orders are made by phone: almost 70 percent of orders are made with the S-kaupat application. The use of the application has increased by 42 percent compared to last year, and the order is modified almost three times on average.
The online store mainly buys the same products as in brick-and-mortar stores, but certain purchases are emphasized in the online store: about 20 percent of the total sales of diapers come through the online store. Also, up to 20 percent of the sales of the most popular oat drinks come from the online store.
The S group shared its sales statistics at the Puhetta ruoasta media event.