Christmas Omicron outbreak underlined the key role of convenience once more, says analyst

By David Shrimpton in Industry News 2nd February 2022

Home delivery rose to 10% of shopping occasions from convenience stores in the 12 weeks to 9 January, according to the latest report from analyst Lumina Intelligence.

The latest data from Lumina shows delivery and click & collect from convenience stores went up by two percentage points and 0.4 percentage points respectively in that 12-week period.

Lumina attributed the rise to risk-aversion during the Omicron outbreak but also to shoppers looking for more convenient shopping over Christmas.

The same factors accounted for a rise in local shopping, with city centre operators seeing their share of shopping trips decline while those in suburban sites – including Co-op, Budgens, Best-one and Costcutter outlets – all experienced a rise in footfall.

Lumina senior insight manager Katherine Prowse said: “Omicron caused a significant amount of uncertainty and a shift to local shopping, with suburban convenience stores seeing the benefit of increased footfall.

“Once again, we see the opportunity that delivery can offer convenience stores – accounting for one-in-10 convenience occasions.

“While covid cases will have played a role, we still expect delivery to be a key growth-driver for the future.

“The last three months of 2021 truly showed, once again, the importance of convenience stores to the UK economy and local communities.”