Ocado, Sainsbury’s and Tesco have been named the retailers with the strongest sales growth over the last 12 weeks, according to the latest data from NIQ.
Ocado was firmly in the lead with sales up 12.4%, while Sainsbury’s and Tesco also had positive sales growth of 6% and 5.4%, respectively.
On the flip side, Asda was the only retailer where sales declined compared to last year, however, the supermarket did experience more visits per shopper than a year ago and NIQ said that footfall was helped by the new Asda Express convenience stores.
Across other retailers, sales growth at M&S slowed to 7.6% which was attributed to last year’s high comparatives, while discounters Aldi and Lidl also experienced slowing sales.
Across UK supermarkets as a whole, total till sales remained strong with 3.3% growth for the four weeks to 18 May, which is in line with figures last month of 3.4%.
NIQ said this positive performance was due to the brief period of hot weather during the week ending 11 May, which pushed value growths at the supermarkets to 5.1% – a two month high.
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The week of warm weather in May also helped to lift FMCG volume growth, up 1.8% at the major supermarkets over the four week period, with top products purchased including ice cream, cider, pre-mixed alcoholic drinks, and mineral water.
Store visits increased during the period, up 2.8% and equating to an additional 14.3m visits compared to last year, and while NIQ said this led to fewer shoppers using the online channel, those that did shopped more often which led to the number of online orders increasing by 4.1%.
The online share of FMCG spend also slightly improved to 13%, up from 12.7% a year ago, which led to an uplift in FMCG spend in the convenience channel (+3.9%).
NIQ UK head of retailer and business insight Mike Watkins said: “Over the last four weeks we’ve noticed that it was the warm weather which helped to move the dial in terms of shopper spending at the UK supermarkets, more so than food inflation, which is expected to remain at around 3% for the next few months.
“Despite this, many shoppers are still faced with limits to their discretionary spend, and this is having an impact on certain categories, so retailers must focus efforts on driving food and drink sales.”
He added: “With weather being such a big factor in driving shopping behaviour, trading over the next few weeks will be challenging as last year marked the hottest June on record. Yet we do have a summer of sport to look forward to with at least 45% of UK households interested in the UEFA Euro 2024 tournament, this should kick start sales again.
“Given that we have seen that shoppers were responsive to a week of sunny weather in May, retailers and suppliers will need to remain agile to respond to this with relevant promotions and good availability when summer finally arrives.”
