Data released by research company NIQ shows that over the 8 weeks of Christmas, spending on groceries in Ireland exceeded €1.63bn, an increase of only 1% in value terms on last year. However, volume purchased declined by just under 3%, with price inflation (price/kg) similar to last year’s Christmas at +4%.
The decline in volume is the first year of consumption decline since 2013 (excluding the post-pandemic years of 2021 & 2022), with shoppers more considered and restrained when it came to spending. Overall, shoppers spent more on groceries over the Christmas period but bought/consumed less.
72% of value incremental sales was driven by brands, with retailer own-label accounting for the remaining 28%. Promotions were a key driver of success for brands, with 34.4% of value sales sold on deal – up 4.7 points on the yearly average of 29.7% value sales sold on deal.
A survey conducted by NIQ Ireland in the first week of January this year found that 84% of shoppers were more mindful of their grocery spending this Christmas. Despite this, 61% of consumers did end up spending more than last year, with 29% funding their Christmas grocery shop using credit/saving/borrowing.
Approximately 50% of shoppers indicated that they socialised and ate out less in pubs/restaurants this year. And in relation to their grocery spending, 42% of shoppers said that they bought approximately the same number of items this year compared to last Christmas, but what they bought, had become more expensive this year. Meanwhile, 20% of shoppers said they purchased fewer items in order to manage their spending, and 77% of shoppers said they were more likely to shop at a grocery retailer if they had vouchers or coupons from that chain.
The survey also found that 85% of shoppers did the majority of their Christmas grocery shopping in-store as opposed to online. 58% of shoppers enjoyed seeing the in-store display of festive items, although 34% said they find it a difficult time to do shopping as the stores are often too busy. The majority (77%) of shoppers bought their main groceries early before the 23rd December, with just 4% of shoppers saying they left the ‘big grocery shop’ until Christmas Eve.
The top 3 strategies for managing spend on grocery shopping at Christmas were planning what to buy in advance, using retailer vouchers/coupons, and using a shopping list to help stay on track.
Meanwhile, people’s top health goals for the new year are to exercise more, reduce calories, and engage in more self-care practices. Eating more plant-based foods and reducing alcohol intake ranked lower in goal priority, indicating a potentially lower uptake for Veganuary and Dry January this new year.
