Visit frequency, weekly shopper value within convenience rise in April

The convenience retail channel has seen increased shopper visit frequency in April, when compared to the previous month, leading to higher average weekly shopper value, a new report from Lumina Intelligence has found.

According to the market researcher’s Convenience Tracking Programme, average visit frequency to a convenience store was 2.6 times per week (+8%) and average weekly shopper value was £29.09 (+4%). However, average basket size has fallen slightly to 3.3 items (-3%).

“Despite restrictions of the UK hospitality industry beginning to ease, convenience retail benefitted from increased visit frequency and spend in April,” commented Alice Dolling, Insight Lead at Lumina Intelligence.

“Increased movement of people has also had a positive impact on the food to go category, which has increased share of total visits. As restrictions ease further, we expect food to go to continue to grow its share, particularly as workers return to offices.”

Planned top-up remains the number one mission driving shoppers to convenience stores, however its share of visits has fallen -2.7ppts to 29.2 per cent. The report cites an increase in shoppers on a food to go mission, +2.1ppts to 12.6 per cent, as the reason for this change.

The data also indicates an increase in the proportion of shopper using delivery and click and collect services.

“At the beginning of the year, we predicted the trend towards delivery to be one of the lasting legacies of the coronavirus pandemic, as shoppers get used to the convenience it offers. Our latest data continues to support this prediction, with the proportion of convenience store shoppers using delivery to conduct their shopping increasing by 40 per cent in April,” Dolling said.

The proportion of convenience store shoppers purchasing price-marked packs or buying on promotion also increased. Over half (55.2%) of convenience store shoppers purchased on promotion in April (+2.5ppts) and 46.5 per cent purchased a price-marked pack (+2.4ppts). The top three categories for PMPs are: Chilled foods excluding milk (10.9%), Bakery (wrapped) (7.1%) and  Soft Drinks (6.8%).