Kantar Worldpanel Reveals Global E-commerce Grocery Market has Grown 15% to $48bn

LONDON, September 29, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

E-commerce Growth Outpaces the Overall FMCG Market in the 12 Months to June 2016 

Sales of groceries through e-commerce platforms reached $48 billion in the 12 months to June 2016, according to a new report by Kantar Worldpanel, published today.

The third annual Future of E-commerce in FMCG study shows that e-commerce now accounts for 4.4% of all FMCG sales. Whilst the e-commerce channel is growing, the FMCG market as a whole is flat, increasing just 1.6% during the same period.

Stéphane Roger, Global Shopper and Retail Director at Kantar Worldpanel, comments:

"FMCG growth is slowing, but our data shows that people are looking for more convenience, which can be met by shopping online. Grocery e-commerce, although currently small, with only one in four people shopping online, is growing fast. We forecast it will grow to 9% of the market and be worth $150bn by 2025. With new entrants such as Amazon expanding rapidly, the industry is facing a shake-up."

"Although online sales have the potential to cannibalise in-store sales, it is vital that retailers act quickly to develop a strong e-commerce presence. The retailer that goes online first in each market can enjoy a far higher market share - this can be a difference of at least 40% in France and up to three times more in the UK. In this report we've looked at how retailers and brands are finding ways to work across all channels."

   
                          E-commerce share of market 2016
    Rank     Country                  (value)
     1     South Korea                 16.6%
     2        Japan                    7.2%
     3         UK                      6.9%
     4       France                    5.3%
     5       Taiwan                    5.2%
     6        China                    4.2%
     7   Czech Republic                2.1%
     8        Spain                    1.7%
     9   The Netherlands               1.7%
     10        USA                     1.4%

Source: Kantar Worldpanel & Europanel.

Key findings from the report include: 

Global hotspots: a puzzle of performance 

E-commerce growth is not equal around the world and is not explained by connectivity. It might not be surprising that digitally developed South Korea is the world's largest online FMCG market by value share (16.6%). In the USA however, only 1.4% of groceries are bought online. China is the market which saw the biggest growth in the last 12 months, 47% - to a value share of 4.2%. Europe has a relatively low adoption of e-commerce in all countries except the UK with 6.9% of the market and France which has 5.3%. France is a relatively unique e-commerce market as their success is with the Drive model whereby the online shop is collected from the store. Adoption across Latin America is currently very low with the exception of Argentina at 1%.