Sustained growth in spend and penetration
Since shoppers started going out less often, online channels have stepped in to play a major role in fulfilling demand. Online has been on the rise for a few years, but COVID-19 accelerated growth and the shift from offline to online shopping. Bricks and mortar businesses might not be able to survive in the ‘new normal’ world, and could start to shift to ‘clicks and mortar’ instead like 7-Eleven, the largest Convenience Store in Thailand, which has also opened an in-app delivery service.
After the first lockdown in early 2020, the Online channel significantly grew its number of Food occasions by over 400% in Q3 2020 compared with Q3 2019. In Q3 2021, value sales grew 87.7% YOY, while penetration grew 5.6% – meaning there are now almost 1.5 million buyers who purchase Food products online at least once per annum.
According to Kantar Worldpanel’s Household Panel data, all three sub-sectors – Snack, Food Preparation and Consumable – have been able to grow significantly. Food Preparation has the highest growth, but its contribution to total Food value is still low. The fastest growing category is Cooking Oil. In Snacks shoppers tend to spend most on Biscuits, while in Consumable buyers are looking to stock up on Rice.
Pure players lead the online channels: Shopee, Lazada and JD Central are the main platforms, with Shopee the leader in FMCG. Shopee’s most-bought categories are Consumable and Food Preparation.
However, the highest growth last year came from e-retailers like Lotus’s, BigC, Tops and 7-eleven – dominated by the 7-eleven app. The most-bought category from the 7-eleven app is Consumable and Snack.
