Last month, Checkout magazine, in association with Ignite Research, released the 2015 Where We Shop report, detailing the shopping habits of Irish consumers.
The report, which measured the shopping habits of 1,000 Irish consumers across the ‘Big Five’ grocers, found that one third of Irish consumers (33%) do their weekly 'main shop' at Tesco.
In addition, 23% of respondents do their 'main shop' at Aldi, followed by 16% at 'Lidl', 15% at Dunnes Stores, and 11% at SuperValu. There has been little change in the percentage shopping at each store since last year.
Female shoppers are more likely to choose Tesco for their main shop than male shoppers (34% vs 31%), while there is a sizable gap between the percentage of male shoppers (19%) and female shoppers (11%) that primarily use Dunnes.
Shoppers in the Rest of Leinster are more likely than any other region to choose Aldi for their main shop (29%), while Dublin shoppers are more likely to choose Lidl (23%), and Munster shoppers are more likely to choose Dunnes (23%).
Some of the reasons shoppers gave for choosing Tesco as their main shopping destination include 'has a wide range' (68%), convenient location (65%) and strong customer loyalty programme (50%).
Shoppers that conduct their main shop at Aldi and Lidl cite value for money as the key reason behind their choice, with 86% of Aldi shoppers and 81% of Lidl shoppers citing their respective stores as 'the cheapest'.
"It’s surprising that little has changed overall when it comes to this increasingly more competitive landscape where consumers are constantly comparing from retailer to retailer," says Conor Hughes, Client Director, Ignite Reseearch.
"Today it’s a case that stores have to work very hard to differentiate themselves from the competition and this is more evident when we look at value for money perceptions. Here, the discounters have fallen back, which one would have to assume is as a result of deals being offered by all the major retailers."
In addition, SuperValu is seen as the retailer that is the ‘best at promoting Irish’ products, by 39% of respondents, up from 33% last year. In contrast, the percentage that deemed Dunnes to be the best at promoting Irish fell to 17% (down from 23% last year).
Finally, 37% of respondents said that they were shopping in Aldi 'more now compared to 12 months ago', compared to 30% that said they were shopping more at Lidl, 20% at Tesco, 16% at SuperValu and 11% at Dunnes (multiple responses accepted).
Extra Research
To support the findings of the Where We Shop Report, Ignite Research has produced an in-depth report analysing brand performance in the multiples. This is a comprehensive study on why Irish people purchasing your brand, why they buy your products and how they feel when shopping.
Click here to download a synopsis of this report, alternatively click here for further information on how to order it.
© 2015 - Checkout Magazine by Stephen Wynne-Jones
