50 percent of online shops in Germany also deliver fresh goods

The online food trade has a niche existence in Germany. In other countries, customers are already buying significantly more food online. However, one can separate the chaff from the wheat if one researches which online retailer offers fresh products as well. Because in most countries, the supply of non-perishable food dominates the market. For aspects such as flat rate shipping, store or drive-in pickup, there are major country-specific differences. A look at the turnover of food online retailers also reveals significant differences - and this with a similar population size. This is shown by the current study „Lebensmittel E-Commerce 2018“, which analyzes the 15 top-selling food online shops in 10 countries.

Revenues
Germany's biggest sellers of e-food are amazon.de and hellofresh.de with sales of 100 to 200 million euros. Rewe.de comes directly behind them, with a turnover of 50 to 100 million euros. In the United Kingdom, online grocers can look forward to a much more shopping-happy population. Asda.com, sainsburys.co.uk and tesco.com are the three largest stores with the largest sales figures of €500 to €1,000 million, and two others ranked in the €200-500 million sales volume, even though the country has 17 million fewer people than Germany. In France, sales are similar to those in Germany. Here, the two strongest-selling shops, auchan.fr and monoprix.fr, each generated 100 to 200 million euros. Amazon.fr follows, with a turnover of 50 to 100 million euros. At our Dutch neighbors, ah.nl is in the lead, achieving the second largest sales of €200 to 500 million. With sales of 50 to 100 million euros, there is gall.nl. Third strongest shop is plus.nl with a turnover of at least 20 to 50 million euros.

Source: EHI study "Lebensmittel E-Commerce 2018”

Services
Not only does the UK boast the largest sales, it also has most of the companies offering one-way flat-rate shipping to its customers. In Switzerland it is 13.3 percent, in Germany only 6.7 percent and in the other countries there are no companies with this option. The UK is leading on another front as well. At 66.7 percent of e-food companies, customers can pick up their goods ordered online at the store. Here, too, Germany falls short significantly, with only 20 percent of companies in this country having this possibility. In Switzerland, 60 percent have this service. France and the Netherlands are in the midfield with 40 percent.

Freshness
Whether coffee, tea, spirits or baby food - the range of food on the Internet is now extremely diverse in most countries. But as far as fresh food such as fruits, vegetables, meat or cheese are concerned, there are clear differences. It is all really fresh in the UK. Here, two thirds of companies have fresh food in their ranges. In the US, 60 percent have freshness on offer. France and Spain share third place with 50 percent. Despite a high coverage with grocery stores in Germany - there are more than 37,000 of these currently in the entire federal territory - in this country, 50 percent of online companies offer fresh food as well. In the Netherlands, the fresh content is 40 percent. There is still a lot of room for improvement in Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Canada.

Source: EHI study "Lebensmittel E-Commerce 2018”

Not just online
In the 10 countries surveyed, an average of just under 60 percent of the top-selling online shops for foodstuffs also have branches one can visit. In Germany, one third of retailers use their experiences in the non-virtual food trade for their e-commerce activities. The exact same picture is shown in France. With a share of 60 percent, the Netherlands is just above average. Well above the average is again the United Kingdom; this country reaches the peak of 80 percent, together with the USA and Canada.

For more information:

EHI Retail Institute e. V.

Spichernstraße 55

50672 Köln