Dutch supermarkets’ online revenue is worth €1 billion

The total online revenue of Dutch supermarkets will surpass the 1 billion euros mark this year. It’s predicted that the total revenue of supermarkets in the Netherlands will be worth 35.53 billion euros in 2017, of which 2.9 percent will happen online.

And that would mean the total online revenue of Dutch supermarkets will, for the first time ever, be worth over one billion euros. Most of this revenue will come from major supermarket chains Albert Heijn and Jumbo, two Dutch supermarkets that compete online in different ways.

Almost one in six households in the Netherlands sometimes order their groceries online, data from GfK shows. In September, the total revenue of supermarkets increased with 4.4 percent to 2.71 billion euros. During the first nine months of this year, the supermarkets’ revenue increased with 2.7 euros to over 26 billion euros. Online sales is said to account for 2.9 percent of total revenue at the end of this year. This online share has grown 40 percent compared to the situation one year before. For next year, GfK predicts the online share will account for 3.7 percent of the total revenue.

Online grocery shopping in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands, many supermarket chains are investing heavily in ecommerce. Albert Heijn, the country’s biggest supermarket chain, has an online store since 2001. Via AH.nl, customers can order products not only from Albert Heijn, but also from other Ahold companies, such as Etos and Gall & Gall. Since 2012, Ahold also owns Bol.com, the biggest online store in the Netherlands.

Jumbo, which increased its market share after acquiring smaller competitors Super de Boer and C1000, is also betting on ecommerce. The company’s online share has doubled during this year and now accounts for somewhere between 2 and 3 percent of the total revenue.

Another important and popular player in the Dutch online supermarket industry is Picnic, which raised 100 million euros in March this year. With this money, the online-only supermarket wants to further expand across the country.