C-stores visited more in April, research shows

By Liz Wells in Industry News 19th May 2021

The UK convenience retail channel has seen growth in average shopper visit frequency and average weekly shopper value in the four weeks ended 2 May.

The latest insight from Lumina Intelligence’s Convenience Tracking Programme shows visit frequency to a convenience store was 2.6 times per week (+8%), the average weekly shopper value was £29.09 (+4%), and the average basket size was 3.3 items (-3%). In contrast, the average basket size has fallen slightly.

Planned top-up remains the number one mission driving shoppers to convenience stores, but its share of visits has fallen -2.7ppts to 29.2% during the four-week period. This change has been driven by an increase in shoppers on a food to go mission, which increased by +2.1ppts to 12.6%.

The data also indicates an increase in the proportion of shoppers using delivery and click-and-collect services. The proportion of convenience store shoppers using delivery services rose by 40% to 4.5% in the four-week period and there was an increase of 8% to 1.1% for click-and-collect.

The proportion of convenience store shoppers purchasing price-marked packs (46.5%) or buying on promotion (55.2%) also increased, up 2.4ppts and 2.4ppt, respectively.

The research reveals the top three categories for PMPs are: Chilled foods excluding milk (10.9%), wrapped bakery (7.1%), and soft drinks (6.8%).

Alice Dolling, insight lead at Lumina Intelligence, said: “Despite restrictions of the UK hospitality industry beginning to ease, convenience retail benefitted from increased visit frequency and spend in April. 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.

“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% in April.”