Significant growth opportunities lie ahead for convenience stores, which are now visited on average 12 times a month – more often than any other type of grocery format, according to findings from IGD’s ShopperVista research.

Half of shoppers now believe that it’s more convenient to shop around rather than buy everything under one roof, with the average shopper making 24 grocery trips a month through four different channels. Today’s shoppers have three main priorities:

• To save money on food and groceries (64%)
• To reduce food waste (47%)
• To stick to a budget (47%)

Convenience is already the second-largest grocery channel and by 2019, IGD forecasts it will account for nearly a quarter (24%) of food and grocery sales. Together, convenience, discount and online retailing are expected to grow by more than £31bn over the next five years and claim 43% of the market.

The research unveiled some key improvements that convenience shoppers would like to see on pricing and promotions:

42% said they favour price reductions over multi-buys in the channel

41% would like to see convenience stores provide more round pound deals and pound zones

37% want it to be easier to compare offers with the original price.

Source: www.retailtimes.co.uk