Monthly online grocery sales fall for first time ever as spending shifts outdoors

The supermarket industry, which enjoyed bumper customer demand during the pandemic, has seen grocery sales fall as shoppers make the most of lockdown rules easing and hit restaurants.

Data firm Kantar said take-home grocery sales were down 5.1% in the 12 weeks to July 11 from a year earlier, although shoppers still spent £3 billion more than in the same period in 2019.

Online orders were also hit as “the nation returned to shops, workplaces and restaurants over the past month”, said Kantar’s Fraser McKevitt.

McKevitt said digital baskets shrunk by 8% to an average of £80 per shop in the four weeks to July 11, contributing to the first ever year-on-year decline in monthly online grocery sales.

The update came as mixer maker Fever-Tree saw shares drop more than 7%, or 193.38p, to 2256.62p.

It said “challenges surrounding global logistics cost pressures have progressively impacted” margins in recent months. It expects to receive a boost from bars and clubs reopening this week.

Despite the hospitality sector reopening further, doorstep delivery firm Virgin Wines said it expects revenues for the year to July to come in ahead of expectations at £73.8 million.