Despit a significant focus by retailers on the Christmas shop, there are just over half (51%) of grocery shoppers who claim they will shop as normal this Christmas and just buy a few extra items for Christmas. However, for 1 in 3 (33%) shoppers, there will be a dedicated Christmas food shop conducted, with 1 in 7 (14%) claiming to stockpile food and alcohol in the run-up to Christmas.
Recent research on behalf of Retail Intelligence by Empathy Research, amongst a nationally representative sample of 1,000 adults aged 18+, sought to understand planned shopping behaviour this Christmas.
However, not all of this shopping will be conducted in the Republic of Ireland, with almost 1 in 5 (19%) grocery shoppers claiming to have already conducted or plan on conducting some Christmas grocery shopping in Northern Ireland this year. Indeed, some 1 in 5 (20%) of those who claim they will stock-pile food or alcohol this Christmas will also conduct a grocery shop north of the border.
Amongst those who will conduct a grocery shop in Northern Ireland this year, there are several factors at play influencing this decision, with cheaper alcohol prices (60%) and food prices (56%) to the fore; even without the impact of Brexit factored in. Almost half of those who will shop in Northern Ireland claim they do so because there is a better range of products available there.
Finally, while online shopping will be extremely prevalent this Christmas, it will not have a big impact on the grocery shopping category. There are just 1 in 20 (5%) grocery shoppers planning on purchasing some food products for their Christmas dinner online this year. This peaks amongst those aged 35-44 (8%) and Dublin residents (8%).
For further information and more in-depth analysis on the shopping behaviour of grocery shoppers this Christmas, please contact Robbie Clarke at Empathy Research.
© 2017 - Checkout Magazine by Donna Ahern
