21% of Germans have ordered groceries online at least once in the past year. However, this rate is extremely low by international standards – in the UK the percentage is as high as 45%. As can be seen in a new infographic from Block-Builders.de, the industry is growing rapidly, but is also highly competitive.
Close to half of all German citizens have already shopped online for groceries, or can imagine doing so in the future. According to a study by Oliver Wyman, online grocers’ share of total food sales is expected to increase at least fivefold by 2030.
As can be seen in the infographic, the groceries market as a whole is also growing. While turnover in Germany was around €180 billion in 2018, it reached €200 billion last year. Forecasts indicate that turnover is set to grow by a further 20 billion over the next 5 years.
It is perhaps unsurprising that we have seem a marked increase in demand since the initial restrictions came into force to combat the pandemic. The Google Trend Score for the search term pair “order food” hit a high of one hundred in March last year. This signifies the highest possible relative search volume. Yet significantly more people are continuing to search for online grocery services online compared to before the Corona crisis.
Unconcealed Growth
Investment in food delivery services was up 32% in 2020 on the previous year – yet the market is competitive, and promising players such as Gorillas and Nimble continue to keep a low profile for fear of being copied by competitors.
As the infographic shows, consumer interest in general is high. Potential online grocery shoppers are particularly concerned with ecological and social standards. 64% of Germans indicate that they would pay great attention to this when buying food online.
Alongside pure grocery delivery services, similar companies are also on the rise – as a glance at the stock exchange floor underlines. For example, shares in Hello Fresh have risen by 191.3% in the last year, while shares in Delivery Hero have gained 51.9%. The DAX grew by just 7% in the same period.
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