The online market for food was already on the rise, but is experiencing an accelerated and definitive breakthrough due to the corona crisis. Consumers who now order their groceries online for the first time will continue to do so even after the pandemic.
So states Wijnand Jongen, director of trade association Thuiswinkel.org to NU.nl. According to Jongen, the breakthrough had already started before the crisis; the online grocery market grew by 25 per cent in 2019. The corona crisis is accelerating that growth. "Demand has now exploded and it will normalise slightly, but the upward trend is accelerating."
Doubling turnover
The interest association for online shops expects at least a doubling in terms of sales compared to last year. Back then, online sales in food and near food (groceries such as toilet paper and shampoo) reached EUR 2.2 billion.
Digital queue for supermarkets
The online grocery services of supermarkets are crowded. There is limited space to place new orders. At Jumbo, there was no such possibility at all last week. The supermarket chain temporarily did not process new orders. Albert Heijn says it is "mega busy" and is working hard to expand capacity. Picnic is looking for hundreds of new employees to process the large volume of orders.
